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
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|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 |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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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
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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
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Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093
FN: 0003605