New 2013 CA Victim Laws
Here is a listing of the new California laws related to victims and victims' rights for 2013 (by category):
Child Abuse
AB 1434: An act to amend Section 11165.7 of the Penal Code, relating to child abuse reporting. This bill would add employees and administrators of a public or private postsecondary institution, whose duties bring the administrator or employee into contact with children on a regular basis or who supervises those whose duties bring the administrator or employee into contact with children on a regular basis, as to child abuse or neglect occurring on that institution’s premises or at an official activity of, or program conducted by, the institution, to the list of individuals who are mandated reporters.
AB 1435: An act to amend Section 11165.7 of the Penal Code, relating to child abuse reporting. This bill would add athletic coaches, athletic administrators, and athletic directors employed by any public or private school that provides any combination of instruction for kindergarten, or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, to the list of individuals who are mandated reporters.
AB 1707: An act to amend Sections 11169 and 11170 of the Penal Code, relating to the Child Abuse Central Index. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to act as a repository of reports of suspected child abuse and severe neglect to be maintained in the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI). This bill would require the information to be deleted from the CACI 10 years from the date of the incident resulting in the CACI listing if a person listed in the CACI was under 18 years of age at the time of the report and if no subsequent report concerning the same person is received during the 10-year period.
AB 1713: An act to amend Sections 11165.7 and 11166 of the Penal Code, relating to child abuse reporting. This bill would expand the application of those provisions to commercial film and photographic print or image processors, as defined, and would also expand the list of media to which those provisions apply to include, among other things, any representation of information, data, or an image, as specified.
AB 1817: An act to amend Sections 11165.7 and 11166 of the Penal Code, relating to child abuse reporting. This bill would expand the list of persons identified as mandated reporters to include commercial computer technicians, as defined.
SB 1264: An act to amend Sections 11165.7 and 11166.5 of the Penal Code, and to amend Section 355 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to child abuse reporting. This bill would include in the list of individuals who are mandated reporters any athletic coach, including, but not limited to, an assistant coach or a graduate assistant involved in coaching at a public or private postsecondary institution.
Domestic Violence
AB 593: An act to amend Section 1473.5 of the Penal Code, relating to domestic violence. This bill would make the provisions for a writ of habeas corpus based on intimate partner battering operative indefinitely.
AB 1165: An act to amend Section 1203.097 of the Penal Code, relating to domestic violence. This bill would make an act or omission relating to the approval of the batterer’s treatment programs a discretionary act, as specified.
AB 1593: An act to amend Section 4801 of the Penal Code, relating to parole. The bill would require the board to give great weight to information or evidence of intimate partner battering at the time of the crime.
AB 2051: An act to amend Section 1219 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and to amend Section 1387 of the Penal Code, relating to domestic violence. This bill would authorize the court to refer a victim of a domestic violence crime who refuses to testify to a domestic violence counselor, as defined, before finding the victim in contempt of court. Under the bill, any communications between the victim and the domestic violence counselor would remain confidential, subject to certain exceptions.
SB 1403: An act to amend Section 1946.7 of the Civil Code, and to amend Section 1161.3 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to domestic violence.
Existing law authorizes a tenant to notify the landlord in writing that he or she or a household member, as defined, was a victim of an act of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking and intends to terminate the tenancy, and requires that the tenant attach a copy of a temporary restraining order, emergency protective order, or a report by a peace officer to the notice. Existing law permits the tenant to quit the premises after notification and limits the tenant’s obligation for payment of rent, as specified. Existing law requires the notice to terminate the tenancy to be given within 180 days of the date the order was issued or the report was made, or as specified.
This bill would include abuse of an elder or a dependent adult, as defined, among the acts for which a tenant may terminate a tenancy under the above provisions. The bill would also include a copy of a protective order among the approved documents required to be provided to the landlord with a notice to terminate a tenancy under the above provisions.
Existing law prohibits a landlord from terminating a tenancy or failing to renew a tenancy based upon an act of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking against a protected tenant, as defined, or a protected tenant’s household member when that act is documented by a temporary restraining order, emergency protective order, or a written report, as specified, and the person who is restrained from contact with the protected tenant under the protection order, or is named in the police report of that act is not a tenant of the same dwelling unit.
This bill would include protective orders among the documents that may be provided to establish domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking against a protected tenant or a protected tenant’s household member under the above provisions. The bill would also include abuse of an elder or a dependent adult among the acts for which a landlord may not terminate a tenancy or fail to renew a tenancy under the above provisions.
SB 1433: An act to amend Sections 6306 and 6389 of the Family Code, and to amend Section 18250 of the Penal Code, relating to domestic violence.
The Domestic Violence Prevention Act requires the court, prior to a hearing on the issuance or denial of a protective order, to ensure that a search of specified records and databases is or has been made to determine if the proposed subject of the order has any specified prior criminal convictions or outstanding warrants, is on parole or probation, or is or was the subject of other protective or restraining orders.
This bill would further require the court to ensure that the search described above also includes a determination of whether the proposed subject of the order has a registered firearm.
Existing law prohibits a person subject to a protective order, as defined, from owning, possessing, purchasing, or receiving a firearm while that protective order is in effect and makes a willful and knowing violation of a protective order a crime.
This bill would require a peace officer serving a protective order that indicates a respondent possesses weapons or ammunition to request that the firearm be immediately surrendered. The bill would also require a person ordered to relinquish a firearm to file a copy of the receipt described above with the local law enforcement agency that served the protective order within 48 hours after being served with the order. Because a willful and knowing violation of a protective order is a crime, the bill would expand the scope of an existing crime, resulting in a state‑mandated local program.
Elder Abuse
AB 40: An act to amend Sections 15630 and 15631 of, and to add Section 15610.67 to, the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to elder and dependent adult abuse. Establishes new procedures under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act for reporting elder abuse.
AB 1525: An act to add Section 2043 to the Financial Code, relating to elder or dependent adult financial abuse. This bill would require specified money transmission licensees to provide, on or before April 1, 2013, and annually thereafter, each of their agents with training materials on recognizing elder or dependent adult financial abuse, and on the appropriate response to suspected elder or dependent adult financial abuse in a transaction.
Fraud
SB 1058: An act to amend Sections 1502 and 2117 of, to add Chapter 22.5 (commencing with Section 2280) to Division 1 of Title 1 of, and to repeal Section 1502.5 of, the Corporations Code, relating to the Victims of Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund. The bill would provide that an aggrieved person who obtains a final judgment, as specified, against a corporation based upon the corporation’s fraud, misrepresentation, or deceit, made with intent to defraud, may file an application with the Secretary of State for payment from the fund for the amount unpaid on the judgment that represents the awarded actual and direct loss to the claimant in the final judgment.
Human Trafficking
SB 1193: Human Trafficking, posting requirements. An act to add Section 52.6 to the Civil Code, relating to human trafficking. This bill would require specified businesses and other establishments to post a notice that is at least 8 1⁄2 inches by 11 inches in size that contains information related to slavery and human trafficking, including information related to 2 nonprofit organizations that provide services in support of the elimination of slavery and human trafficking.
Restitution/Compensation
AB 2251: An act to amend Section 1203c of the Penal Code, relating to victim restitution. Existing law requires a court to order a criminal defendant to make restitution in every case in which a victim has suffered economic loss as a result of the defendant’s conduct. This bill would, notwithstanding the above provision requiring the victim’s consent, authorize a district attorney to send the victim’s contact information and a copy of the restitution order to the department for that purpose if the district attorney finds that it is in the best interest of the victim to send that information.
SB 1177: An act to amend Sections 3602 and 3754 of the Labor Code, and to amend Section 1202.4 of the Penal Code, relating to restitution. This bill would prohibit, in cases where an employer is convicted of a crime against an employee, a payment to the employee or the employee’s dependent that is made by the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier from being used to offset the restitution owed to the victim unless the court finds that the defendant substantially met the obligation to pay premiums for that insurance coverage.
SB 1299: An act to amend Sections 13952, 13953, 13954, 13955, 13957.2, and 13957.7 of, and to repeal Section 13957.9 of, the Government Code, relating to victims of crime, and making an appropriation therefor. This bill would increase from one year to 3 years the time period in which crime victims may file an application for compensation. The bill would modify the authorization for the board to extend that time period for good cause, as specified.
This bill would include within the meaning of the term “authorized representative” a county social worker designated by a county department of social services to represent a child abuse or elder abuse victim if that victim is unable to file on his or her own behalf. This bill would also repeal a requirement for the board to develop a simplified and expedited procedure for paying claims to a qualified provider of mental health services.
The bill would provide that any reduction in maximum rates or service limitations shall not affect payment or reimbursement of losses incurred prior to 3 months after the adoption of any changes. The bill would prohibit a provider from charging the victim or derivative victim for any difference between the cost of a service, as specified, and the program’s payment for that service.
SB 1371: An act to amend Section 1205 of the Penal Code, relating to victim restitution, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
Existing law requires a court to order a defendant to make restitution in every case in which a victim has suffered economic loss as a result of the defendant’s conduct. Existing law requires the restitution order to be based on the amount of loss claimed by the victim or victims, and to be of a dollar amount that is sufficient to fully reimburse the victim or victims for every determined economic loss incurred as a result of the defendant’s criminal conduct, as specified. Under existing law, a restitution order imposed pursuant to these provisions is enforceable as if the order were a civil judgment.
Existing law specifies that a judgment that a defendant pay a fine may also direct that he or she be imprisoned until the fine is satisfied, and that the imprisonment begin at and continue after the expiration of any other prison sentence. Existing law makes those provisions applicable to restitution fines and restitution orders only if the defendant has defaulted on the payment of other fines.
This bill would instead make those provisions regarding imprisonment until a fine is satisfied inapplicable to restitution fines and restitution orders. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
SB 1479: An act to amend Section 1202.4 of the Penal Code, relating to crime victims. This bill would specify that possession of nonconforming devices or articles intended for sale constitutes actual economic loss to an owner or lawful producer in the form of displaced legitimate wholesale purchases. The bill would also base the order of restitution on the aggregate wholesale value of lawfully manufactured and authorized devices or articles from which sounds or visual images are devised corresponding to the number of nonconforming devices or articles involved in the offense.
Stalking
AB 2483: Existing law authorizes victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking to complete an application in person at a community-based victims assistance program to be approved by the Secretary of State for the purpose of enabling state and local agencies to provide for confidentiality of the address for that person, subject to specified conditions. An applicant alleging the basis for the application is stalking is required to attach specific evidence to the application. This bill would remove the requirement for specific attached evidence for an application alleging the basis is stalking, and instead make the inclusion of that evidence permissive.
SB 1082: Protection of stalking victims, address confidentiality. See AB 2483.