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California Law Revision Commission

-- Last revised 10/30/23 --

California Public Records Act Clean-Up - Study G-400

    Chapter 150 of the Statutes of 2016 directs the Law Revision Commission to:

[S]tudy, report on, and prepare recommended legislation as soon as possible, considering the Commission's preexisting duties and workload demands, concerning the revision of the portions of the California Public Records Act and related provisions, and that this legislation shall accomplish all of the following objectives:

(1) Reduce the length and complexity of current sections.

(2) Avoid unnecessary cross-references.

(3) Neither expand nor contract the scope of existing exemptions to the general rule that records are open to the public pursuant to the current provisions of the Public Records Act.

(4) To the extent compatible with (3), use terms with common definitions.

(5) Organize the existing provisions in such a way that similar provisions are located in close proximity to one another.

(6) Eliminate duplicative provisions.

(7) Clearly express legislative intent without any change in the substantive provisions

    The Commission studied the CPRA as directed and approved a final recommendation proposing to recodify the CPRA in a more user-friendly manner without any substantive change (see California Public Records Act Clean-Up (Nov. 2019)).

    The Commission also approved a final recommendation consisting of conforming revisions for the CPRA recodification (see California Public Records Act Clean-Up: Conforming Revisions (Nov. 2019)).

    In 2021, Assemblymember Chau introduced a bill to implement the proposed recodification (AB 473 (Chau)). He also introduced a companion bill, to implement the conforming revisions (AB 474 (Chau)). Both bills were enacted. See 2021 Cal. Stat. chs. 614, 615.     However, some of the conforming revisions were nullified by substantive bills affecting the same code sections. Those conforming revisions have been reintroduced in the Legislature. See SB 1380 (2021-22), AB 1754 (2023-24).

    The CPRA recodification became operative on January 1, 2023. See Gov’t Code § 7931.000. A disposition table and a derivation table are available at no cost, to help with the transition to the new statutory scheme.

Related Material


Final Recommendation

Top | CLRC Homepage

Tentative Recommendations and Other Requests for Comment

Top | CLRC Homepage

Meeting Minutes

Top | CLRC Homepage

Staff Memoranda

Top | CLRC Homepage

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