AB 3281

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law establishes the Department of Justice in the state government, under the direction and control of the Attorney General. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to arrange and classify the work of the Department of Justice and to consolidate, abolish, or create divisions, bureaus, branches, sections, or units within the department. Various provisions of existing law governing contracts in restraint of trade; false advertising; the regulation of telephonic sellers, sellers of travel, and discount buying organizations, as those terms are defined; and the payment of eligible claims by the Consumer Motor Vehicle Recovery Corporation, refer to the Consumer Law Section within the Department of Justice. This bill would update obsolete references to the Consumer Law Section within the Department of Justice in the above-described provisions to instead refer to the Consumer Protection Section. The bill would also make various nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. (2) Existing law, the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) , generally prohibits a provider of health care, a health care service plan, or a contractor from disclosing medical information regarding a patient, enrollee, or subscriber without first obtaining an authorization, unless a specified exception applies. The CMIA requires every provider of health care, health care service plan, pharmaceutical company, or contractor who, among other things, maintains or stores medical information to do so in a manner that preserves the confidentiality of the information contained therein. Existing law requires specified businesses that electronically store or maintain medical information on the provision of sensitive services on behalf of a provider of health care, health care service plan, pharmaceutical company, contractor, or employer to develop capabilities, policies, and procedures, on or before July 1, 2024, to enable certain security features, including limiting user access privileges and segregating medical information related to gender affirming care, abortion and abortion-related services, and contraception, as specified. Existing law provides that this requirement does not apply to a provider of health care, as defined. This bill would provide that the requirement for specified businesses to enable certain security features as described above does not apply to a contractor or health service plan, as defined. (3) Existing law authorizes a plaintiff, who prevails in a cause of action against a defendant pursuant to specified federal law on the preservation of consumer claims and defenses, to claim attorney's fees, costs, and expenses, as prescribed. Existing law requires a person engaged in a trade or business who negotiates primarily in specified languages in the course of engaging in certain business agreements to provide the other party to the contract or agreement a translation of the contract or agreement in the language in which it was negotiated. Existing law, the Educational Debt Collection Practices Act, prohibits a school, as defined, from refusing to provide a transcript for a current or former student on the grounds that the student owes a debt and from taking related debt collection actions. Existing law regarding student loans prohibits a person from engaging in certain abusive acts or practices when servicing a student loan in this state and provides various remedies for a violation of these provisions. Existing law, the Automobile Sales Finance Act, authorizes a guaranteed asset protection waiver, as specified, to be offered, sold, or provided to a buyer or administered in connection with a conditional sale contract only in compliance with specified provisions. Existing law makes a legislative finding that all protections, rights, and remedies available under state law, except as specified, are available to all individuals regardless of immigration status who have applied for employment or who are or have been employed in this state, as prescribed. This bill would provide that a waiver of any of the above-described provisions is contrary to public policy and is void and unenforceable. (4) The Consumers Legal Remedies Act makes unlawful certain unfair methods of competition and certain unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by a person in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to a consumer, including the failure to include a prescribed disclosure statement in a solicitation by a covered person, as defined, or an entity acting on behalf of a covered person, to a consumer for a consumer financial product or service. This bill would also require the disclosure statement to appear on the front of an envelope that contains such a solicitation, as prescribed. (5) Existing law, in a proceeding for dissolution or nullity of marriage or legal separation of the parties under the Family Code, authorizes a court to transfer the proceedings to the county of residence of either party when it appears that both the petitioner and the respondent have moved from the county rendering the order. Existing law provides that the proper court for trial in a proceeding to enforce a child support obligation is the superior court in the county where the child resides. Existing law authorizes a court, on motion, to change the place of trial in certain cases, and requires the court to which the case is transferred to have and exercise jurisdiction over the case as if it had been originally commenced in that court. This bill would authorize a court to transfer any proceeding under the Family Code where it appears that both the petitioner and the respondent have moved from the county rendering the order. The bill would authorize a court, in any proceeding in which there is a concurrent action or proceeding under specified existing law relating to child support and involving the local child support agency, to transfer venue for any action or proceeding not subject to those child support provisions. The bill would require the court to redirect motions for change of venue that are subject to those child support provisions to the court of competent jurisdiction, as prescribed. The bill would make conforming changes in related child support provisions. The bill would also expand circumstances in which the transferring court of a family law action or proceeding is required to retain jurisdiction to make orders to prevent immediate danger or irreparable harm to a party or the children involved in the matter or immediate loss or damage to property subject to disposition in the matter if another court has not yet assumed jurisdiction over the proceeding. (6) Existing law requires the party intending to move for a new trial to file a notice of intention to move for a new trial, as specified, either before the entry of judgment or within 15 days of the date of mailing notice of entry of judgment by the clerk of the court or service by any party of written notice of entry of judgment, or within 180 days after the entry of judgment, whichever is earliest. This bill would revise the requirement to file a notice of intention to move for a new trial from within 15 days of the date of mailing notice of entry of judgment to within 15 days of serving the notice. (7) Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, establishes the Civil Rights Department within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, under the direction of the Director of Civil Rights, to enforce civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment and to protect and safeguard the right of all persons to obtain and hold employment without discrimination based on specified characteristics or status. Existing law prescribes various functions, duties, and powers of the department, including, among others, to bring prescribed civil actions for violations of specified federal civil rights and antidiscrimination laws. This bill would authorize the department to bring civil actions for violations of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. The bill would also make technical changes to these provisions. (8) Existing law prohibits a local agency from promulgating, enforcing, or implementing an ordinance, rule, policy, program, or regulation that does specified actions related to a tenancy. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to this provision. (9) Existing law defines "absence of conflicting information relative to parentage" to include entries such as "unknown," "not given," "refused to state," or "obviously fictitious names." This bill would clarify that "absence of conflicting information relative to parentage" means the absence of conflicting information relative to the existence or nonexistence of a parent and child relationship, as defined. (10) Existing law authorizes a person asserting that the error exists in any certificate of birth, death, fetal death, or marriage already registered, to make an affidavit under oath stating the changes necessary to make the record correct, which must be supported by the affidavit of one other credible person having knowledge of the facts, and file it with the state or local registrar. This bill would clarify that those facts include, but are not limited to, the correction of typographical, spelling, or statistical errors. Existing law makes these provisions applicable to a certificate of birth only in the absence of conflicting information relating to parentage on the originally registered certificate. This bill would require that an amendment of a certificate of birth would only be available in the absence of conflicting information relative to the existence or nonexistence of a parent and child relationship, as defined, on the originally registered certificate of birth. (11) Existing law requires a notice that is required to be given to the State of California in connection with a proceeding under the Probate Code to be given to the Attorney General, as specified. Existing appellate case law holds that a party who receives notice of, but who fails to participate in, court-ordered mediation is bound by the result. This bill would declare that the Attorney General does not waive the right to object to a proposed settlement that adversely impacts a charitable gift by failing to appear at a mediation, a mandatory settlement conference, or another court-ordered alternative dispute resolution proceeding related to that settlement. (12) Existing law requires the State Architect to develop amendments for building regulations to ensure accessibility requirements of the California Building Standards Code are not enhanced or diminished except as necessary to retain existing state regulations providing greater accessibility and features or to meet federal minimum standards, as specified. This bill, instead, would require the State Architect to develop amendments for building regulations to ensure accessibility requirements of the California Building Standards Code are not modified except as necessary to align with existing state regulations providing greater accessibility and features, to meet federal minimum accessibility standards, or to align with a provision improving accessibility and adopted in a national specification, published standard, or model code. (13) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1632 of the Civil Code proposed by SB 1103 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1103 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.