Civil

AB87 (Mark Stone) Clarifies the prohibition against discrimination in the exercise of peremptory challenges to prospective jurors. Specifically, this bill aligns existing non-discrimination law with jury selection law by defining discriminatory peremptory challenges as those categories listed within Government Code Section 11135 subdivision (a), including race, national origin, ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, color, genetic information or disability. The Senate amendments make a minor technical change and add a co-author.

An act to amend Section 231.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to jurors.

AB355 (Eduardo Garcia) Revises requirements for the handling of any United States (U.S.) savings bond, war bond, or military award found in a safe deposit box when the contents of that safe deposit box have escheated to the state.

An act to amend Section 1563 of, and to add Section 1531.6 to, the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to unclaimed property.

AB432 (Chang) This bill provides that an electronic signature by a court or judicial officer is effective as an original signature. This bill defines "electronic signature" for the purposes of the Code of Civil Procedure to mean electronic sounds, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the electronic record. This bill makes other non-substantive changes to existing definitions for the Code of Civil Procedure.

An act to amend Section 17 of, and to add Section 34 to, the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to civil procedure.

AB560 (Gomez) Adds a section to the Code of Civil Procedure that bars the consideration of a child's immigration status in civil actions involving liability or remedy.

An act to add Section 3339.5 to the Civil Code, relating to civil actions.

AB675 (Alejo) Revises and recasts the statute governing agreements between rental car companies and their customers in order to allow a rental car company to better separate rental fees from government-imposed charges and achieve other relatively non-controversial changes.

An act to amend Section 1936.05 of, to amend and repeal Section 1936 of, and to repeal Sections 1936.01 and 1936.015 of, the Civil Code, relating to rental vehicles.

AB830 (Eggman) Amends the definition of "gender" in Civil Code Section 52.4 to conform with the definition of that term in the Unruh Civil Rights Act and provides a new civil action for an act of violence that is committed at least in part based on the sexual orientation of the victim.

An act to amend Section 52.4 of, and to add Section 52.45 to, the Civil Code, relating to civil actions.

AB856 (Calderon) Expands the scope of the cause of action in existing law for the physical invasion of privacy.

An act to amend Section 1708.8 of the Civil Code, relating to privacy.

AB902 (Bloom) Removes the age limitation on the use of locally adopted diversion programs for Vehicle Code infractions not involving a motor vehicle, allowing such programs to be offered to adults.

AB998 (Wagner) Extends a statutory damage limitation rule that applies to cases involving libel in a newspaper or slander in a radio or television broadcast to online daily and weekly news publications, as defined.

An act to amend Section 48a of the Civil Code, relating to libel.

AB999 (Daly) Establishes due process requirements for mobilehome park owners (park management) seeking to dispose of an abandoned mobilehome without first being required to pay any unpaid property taxes on the mobilehome.

An act to amend Sections 798.56a and 798.61 of the Civil Code, and to amend Section 18080.5 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to mobilehomes, and making an appropriation therefor.

An act to amend Section 42005.3 of the Vehicle Code, relating to traffic violations.

AB1036 (Quirk) This bill authorizes a notary public to rely on any inmate identification (ID) issued by a sheriff's department to prove the identity of an individual in custody in a local detention facility. An act to amend Section 1185 of the Civil Code, relating to notaries public.

AB1113 (Chau) This bill specifies 30 days as the amount of time in which a person wishing to contest a desist and refrain order issued under the Check Sellers, Bill Payers and Proraters Law has in which to request a hearing on the order from the Commissioner of Business Oversight (commissioner), and 15 days as the amount of time in which the commissioner has in which to hold that hearing, as specified.

AB1390 (Alejo) Adds a new Chapter 7 to Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure (new CCP provisions) that establish methods and procedures for comprehensive groundwater adjudications.

An act to add Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 830) to Title 10 of Part 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to groundwater.

An act to amend Section 12103 of the Financial Code, relating to business.

AB1541 (Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection) This bill revises the definition of personal information to include health insurance information, as defined, and a username or email address combined with a password or security question and answer for access to an online account.

An act to amend Section 1798.81.5 of the Civil Code, relating to privacy.

SB 34 (Hill) This bill establishes regulations on the privacy and usage of automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) data and expands the meaning of "personal information" to include information or data collected through the use or operation of an ALPR system.

An act to amend Sections 1798.29 and 1798.82 of, and to add Title 1.81.23 (commencing with Section 1798.90.5) to Part 4 of Division 3 of, the Civil Code, relating to personal information.

SB 161 (Vidak) This bill renames the existing Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA) to the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (UVTA) and adopts various changes to the act based on updates made to the underlying model act by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

An act to amend Sections 3439, 3439.01, 3439.02, 3439.04, 3439.05, 3439.06, 3439.07, 3439.08, 3439.09, 3446, and 3447 of, to amend the heading of Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 3439) of Title 2 of Part 2 of Division 4 of, to amend the heading of Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 3445) of Title 2 of Part 2 of Division 4 of, to amend the heading of Title 2 (commencing with Section 3439) of Part 2 of Division 4 of, to amend and renumber Sections 3439.11 and 3439.12 of, and to amend, renumber, and add Section 3439.10 of, the Civil Code, to amend Sections 5420, 7420, 15905.02, 15911.27, 17704.03, 17711.08, and 18640 of the Corporations Code, to amend Sections 283 and 9653 of the Probate Code, and to amend Section 2104 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to civil law.

SB 363 (Morrell) This bill increases the maximum attorney's fees, in any action on a contract based on a book account, as defined, that does not provide for attorney's fees and costs, to an amount not to exceed (1) $960 for book accounts that are maintained for personal, family, or household purposes of a natural person; and (2) $1,200 for book accounts that are maintained for all other purposes.

An act to amend Section 1717.5 of the Civil Code, relating to attorney's fees.

SB 474 (Wieckowski) This bill eliminates the creditor bid exemption to the existing prohibition on announcing or allowing an auction bid offered for the sole purpose of increasing a bid amount, and re-casts the existing prohibition to apply only to increased bids offered by the auctioneer.

An act to amend Section 1812.610 of the Civil Code, relating to auctions, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

SB 501 (Wieckowski) This bill, as of July 1, 2016, reduces the maximum amount of disposable earnings subject to wage garnishment to the lesser of either 25 percent of the individual's disposable earnings for that week or 50 percent of the amount by which the individual's disposable earnings for that week exceed 40 times the state minimum hourly wage. This bill provides that if a judgment debtor works in a location where the local minimum hourly wage is greater than the state minimum hourly wage, the local minimum hourly wage in effect at the time the earnings are payable would be the amount upon which to base the maximum amount of wage garnishment. This bill, for any pay period other than weekly, would base the maximum amount of disposable earnings subject to levy on the applicable hourly minimum wage rather than the state hourly minimum wage.

An act to amend, repeal, and add Section 706.050 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to wage garnishment.

SB 600 (Pan) Amends the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) to expressly prohibit discrimination by business establishments on the basis of citizenship, primary language, and immigration status.

An act to amend Section 51 of the Civil Code, relating to discrimination.

SB 641 (Wieckowski) This bill adds a provision to the Fair Debt Buying Practices Act (FDBPA) to provide consumers, in limited circumstances involving actions brought by debt buyers, extended time to file a motion to set aside a default or default judgment and for leave to defend an action relating to debt, if the service of summons did not result in actual notice to the consumer in time to defend the action. This bill requires, except in cases of identity theft or mistaken identity, that the consumer serve and file the notice of motion within a reasonable time, but in no event exceeding the earlier of either: (1) six years after entry of the default or default judgment; or (2) 180 days of the first actual notice of the action, as specified.

An act to add Section 1788.61 to the Civil Code, relating to debt buying.

SB 655 (Mitchell) This bill adds visible mold growth, as determined by a health officer or a code enforcement officer, excluding the presence of mold that is minor and found on surfaces that can accumulate moisture as part of their properly functioning and intended use, to a list of substandard housing conditions.

An act to add Section 1941.7 to the Civil Code, and to amend Sections 17920 and 17920.3 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing standards.