Parentheticals in California Statutes

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a parenthetical is “relating to or inserted as a parenthesis.” While we find the use of parentheticals in different forms of writing, are parentheticals used in California law?

The answer is yes, they can be found in California statutes, but the Office of Legislative Counsel is removing them as they update California’s 29 Codes to reflect modern drafting principles. For example, the following provision of existing law is proposed to be amended this year in a bill pending on the Governor’s Desk:

“Production facility” means piping or equipment used in the production, extraction, recovery, lifting, stabilization, separation, or treatment of petroleum or associated storage or measurement. (To To be a production facility under this definition, piping or equipment must be used in the process of extracting petroleum from the ground and transporting it by pipeline.) pipeline.

As the above example sets forth, while California statutes do contain parentheticals, they are being repealed as Code sections are being updated and what is contained between the two parentheses is simply made a standalone sentence.