BILL ANALYSIS SB 1274 Page 1 Date of Hearing: June 30, 2010 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Felipe Fuentes, Chair SB 1274 (Committee on Judiciary) - As Amended: March 23, 2010 Policy Committee: JudiciaryVote:10-0 (Consent) Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: SUMMARY This bill updates existing provisions regarding the electronic service of court-related documents. Specifically, this bill: 1)Defines "electronic service" to include both electronic notification and electronic transmission, as follows: a) Electronic notification - occurs when a party receives notification through an electronic message specifying the exact name of the document being served, and is provided a hyperlink from which the document may be viewed and downloaded. b) Electronic transmission - occurs when a document is sent through electronic means to an electronic address that has been provided by the receiving party. 2)Requires the Judicial Council to adopt uniform rules regarding the integrity of electronic service. 3)Provides that documents cannot be served electronically if they are required to be served personally. Documents that may be served electronically, if a party has agreed to accept service in this manner, include documents which may be served by mail, express mail, overnight mail, or facsimile transmission. FISCAL EFFECT Minor absorbable costs for the Judicial Council to adopt rules SB 1274 Page 2 regarding the integrity of electronic service, and ongoing savings to court operations from efficiencies related to the likely expanded use of electronic service. COMMENTS Background and Purpose . In January 2009, the California Court of Appeals, 4th District, considered InSyst, Ltd. v. Applied Materials, Inc., in which a party was electronically given instructions to access a document on the internet and given a hyperlink leading to a description of the document. That description also included an additional hyperlink that opened a file-stamped copy of the judgment. Citing a Rule of Court (Rule 2.250(6)), the court said that "[e]lectronic service is the electronic transmission of a document to a party's electronic notification address." (InSyst., Ltd. v. Applied Materials, Inc., at p. 1139.) The court reasoned that neither Rule 2.250(6) nor Section 1010.6 of the Code of Civil Procedure authorized a party to electronically serve another party by providing a hyperlink. Therefore, the court rejected the defendant's argument and found that notifying the recipient electronically about the availability of a document, and including a hyperlink at which the document could be accessed, would not be considered valid electronic service under California law. As a result, current law only authorizes service by the electronic transmission method, but not the electronic notification (hyperlink) method. Prior to InSyst, both electronic transmission and electronic notification were being used increasingly in civil cases, as they perform the same goal in a slightly different way. This bill, co-sponsored by the Judicial Council and the Conference of California Bar Associations, simply redefines electronic service to include electronic transmission and electronic notification. Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081