New California Laws 2026
lating to contracts. SB 85, Umberg. Civil actions: service of summons. This bill allows for alternative service of a summons in a civil case where the plaintiff is unable to effect service using prescribed methods, despite reason- able diligence, including by email or other electronic technology, except in an action against a governmen- tal entity or an agent or employee thereof. An act to amend Section 413.30 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to civil actions. SB 361, Becker. Data brokers: data collection and deletion. This bill expands the disclosures that data brokers must make when registering with Califor- nia’s Data Broker Registry. An act to amend Sections 1798.99.82, 1798.99.84, and 1798.99.86 of the Civil Code, relating to privacy. SB 394, Allen. Water theft: fire hydrants. This bill (1) allows local agencies to establish ordinances spe- cific to water theft from hydrants, (2) modifies pen- alties for other water theft ordinances, and (3) adds theft from fire hydrants to provisions of existing law related to civil suits for water theft. An act to amend Sections 1882.1 and 1882.3 of the Civil Code, and to amend Section 53069.45 of, and to add Section 53069.46 to, the Government Code, relat- ing to water theft. SB 440, Ochoa Bogh. Private Works Change Or- der Fair Payment Act. This bill creates a process, until January 1, 2030, by which disputes between an owner, direct contractor, or subcontractor regarding extensions of time and payment of additional com- pensation for approved changes to the contractor’s scope of work may be resolved through an informal conference and mediation. An act to add and repeal Article 4 (commencing with Section 8850) of Chapter 8 of Title 2 of Part 6 of Division 4 of the Civil Code, relating to works of improvement. SB 446, Hurtado. Data breaches: customer notifi- cation. This bill adds deadlines to an existing statute that requires an individual or a business to report a breach of certain data systems to affected California residents and to the Attorney General. Specifically, this bill requires a qualifying individual or business that experiences a breach of the security of a system that includes personal information to disclose the breach within 30 days to California residents whose personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person. The individual or business may delay this disclosure to accommodate the legitimate needs of law enforce- ment or as necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system. If the breach affected more than 500 California residents, the individual or business must also provide a copy of the breach disclosure to the At- torney General within 15 calendar days of notifying affected consumers of the breach. An act to amend Section 1798.82 of the Civil Code, relating to personal information. SB 645, Umberg. Juries: peremptory challeng- es. This bill permanently exempts most civil case types from the statutory procedure for reviewing objections to peremptory challenges currently used
in criminal cases, while requiring the procedure to apply in civil rights cases, civil commitment actions, and civil cases for damages arising from a hate crime, as specified. An act to amend and repeal Section 231.7 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to juries. SB 683, Cortese. Privacy: use of a person’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness: injunctive relief. This bill clarifies that a plaintiff in a right of publicity lawsuit may seek injunctive relief prior to the entry of judgment, and sets forth the timeframe for a defendant to comply with a temporary restrain- ing order entered in such a case. An act to amend Section 3344 of the Civil Code, relating to privacy. SB 822, Becker. Unclaimed property: digital finan- cial assets. This bill amends the Unclaimed Property Law (UPL) to provide when and how digital financial assets, as defined, escheat to the state. An act to amend Sections 1501, 1520, 1532, 1533, and 1563 of, and to add Sections 1516.5 and 1568 to, the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to unclaimed property. 2025 Assembly Courts and Judiciary Laws AB 136, Committee on Budget. Courts. This bill, as part of the 2025-26 Budget package, makes the following statutory changes: streamlines various requirements for the courts to report to the Legis- lature, repeals the jury duty pilot related to compen- sation and mileage reimbursement that was estab- lished pursuant to AB 1981, authorizes the Judicial Council to sell four surplus properties, as specified, with proceeds deposited into the General Fund, and appropriates $4.7 million General Fund to the State Court Facilities Construction Fund to provide a one- time backfill. An act to repeal Section 241 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and to amend Sections 68502.6, 77202, 77202.5, and 77209 of, to add Sections 68515 and 70397.1 to, and to repeal Sections 68604 and 77001.5 of, the Government Code, relating to courts, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect im- mediately, bill related to the budget. AB 792, Lee. Court interpreters. Amends existing law, known as the Trial Court Interpreter Employ- ment and Labor Relations Act (Court Interpreter Act), relating to regional bargaining and trial court interpreters. An act to amend Section 71808 of the Government Code, relating to courts. AB 1521, Committee on Judiciary. Committee on Judiciary: judiciary omnibus. Makes numerous mi- nor, technical, and non-controversial updates to the codes falling within the jurisdiction of the Commit- tee on Judiciary. An act to amend Section 10147.5 of the Business and Professions Code, to amend Sections 1785.27, 1788.2, 2923.7, 2924.18, and 2924f of, and to add Section 1798.84.1 to, the Civil Code, to amend Sec- tions 697.530, 1141.30, 1710.45, 2016.040, 2023.010, 2030.020, 2031.020, and 2033.020 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to amend Section 15800 of the Corpora-
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