BILL ANALYSIS AB 953 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 953 (Eng) As Amended January 25, 2010 Majority vote TRANSPORTATION 14-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Eng, Jeffries, Bill |Ayes:|De Leon, Conway, Ammiano, | | |Berryhill, Blumenfield, | |Bradford, Charles | | |Buchanan, Furutani, | |Calderon, Coto, Davis, | | |Galgiani, Garrick, Bonnie | |Fuentes, Hall, Harkey, | | |Lowenthal, Miller, | |Miller, Nielsen, John A. | | |Niello, John A. Perez, | |Perez, Skinner, Solorio, | | |Solorio, Torlakson | |Audra Strickland, | | | | |Torlakson | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Allows insurance company agents to obtain home address records from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) under certain circumstances. Specifically, this bill : 1)Extends, to the employees and authorized agents of insurance companies, the privilege of obtaining from DMV the home addresses of motorists and vehicle owners involved in accidents with any individuals insured by those companies. 2)Requires all information obtained under this provision to be subject to the use or disclosure limitations and data security requirements that exist under state and federal law for the insurance companies. 3)Requires these limitations and requirements to be enforced by DMV in compliance with its own current disclosure requirements. 4)Requires the use and disclosure of the information so obtained to be permitted only in order to obtain the address of another motorist or vehicle owner involved in an accident with a person insured by the authorizing insurance company. 5)Prohibits the information from being disclosed for any other purpose or to any other person. AB 953 Page 2 EXISTING LAW : 1)Holds confidential any home addresses within DMV records and prohibits DMV from disclosing residence address in their records to any person, except a court, law enforcement agency, or other government agency. 2)Exempts from that prohibition licensed insurance companies that state, under penalty of perjury, that they are requesting the information for the purpose of obtaining the address of another motorist or vehicle owner involved in an accident with their insured, or are requesting the information on an individual who has signed a written waiver of the confidentiality of his or her DMV home address records or an individual insured under a policy if a named insured of that policy has signed a written waiver. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, there will be minimal costs to DMV, as the bill essentially clarifies existing law. COMMENTS : Existing law allows financial institutions and insurance companies to access address information of persons under specified circumstances. This bill clarifies that insurance companies' employees and the authorized agents of those companies are covered under these provisions. This access is necessary to verify identity and current location of financially responsible party in vehicle accidents. Quite often an insurance company involved in a subrogation action is seeking to locate the vehicle owner and DMV is likely to have the most up to date information. Accurate identity information protects consumers from identity theft and errors in identity and it protects the business community from unnecessary costs. This bill is intended to ensure that financially responsible drivers and owners can be properly identified. Recent amendments to this bill (1/6/2010 & 1/25/2010) that expressly subject insurance company agents (typically collection agencies) to the same limitations and restrictions as those that apply to the insurers themselves were developed in response to concerns expressed by privacy advocates. AB 953 Page 3 Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN: 0003605