BILL NUMBER: SB 557 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Kehoe
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Atkins and Fletcher)
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to add Title 5.3 (commencing with Section 13750) to Part 4
of the Penal Code, relating to family justice centers.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 557, as introduced, Kehoe. Family justice centers.
Existing law provides for various services and programs to assist
victims of crime, including grants to proposed and existing child
sexual exploitation and child abuse victim counseling centers and
prevention programs, and the establishment of a resource center to
operate a statewide, toll-free information service consisting of
legal information for crime victims and providers of services to
crime victims.
This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to
establish a multiagency, multidisciplinary family justice center to
assist victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, and
human trafficking, to ensure that victims of abuse are able to
access all needed services in one location and to enhance victim
safety, increase offender accountability, and improve access to
services for victims of crime, as provided. The bill would permit the
family justice centers to be staffed by law enforcement, medical,
social service, and child welfare personnel, among others.
The bill would authorize a family justice center to share
information pursuant to an informed consent process, as provided. The
bill would authorize the National Family Justice Center Alliance,
subject to certain limitations, to maintain nonidentifying, aggregate
data on victims receiving services from a family justice center and
the outcomes of those services. The bill would provide immunity from
civil liability to staff members of the center for information shared
with others based on an established client consent procedure,
provided that the center has a formal training program with mandatory
training for all members, as specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Title 5.3 (commencing with Section 13750) is added to
Part 4 of the Penal Code, to read:
TITLE 5.3. Family Justice Centers
13750. (a) A city, county, or city and county may establish a
multiagency, multidisciplinary family justice center to assist
victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, and human
trafficking to ensure that victims of abuse are able to access all
needed services in one location in order to enhance victim safety,
increase offender accountability, and improve access to services for
victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, and human
trafficking.
(b) For purposes of this title, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(1) "Abuse" has the same meaning as set forth in Section 6203 of
the Family Code.
(2) "Domestic violence" has the same meaning as set forth in
Section 6211 of the Family Code.
(3) "Sexual assault" means an act or attempt made punishable by
Section 220, 261, 261.5, 262, 264.1, 266c, 269, 285, 286, 288, 288.5,
288a, 289, or 647.6.
(4) "Elder abuse" means an act made punishable by Section 368.
(5) "Human trafficking" has the same meaning as set forth in
Section 236.1.
(c) For purposes of this title, family justice centers shall be
defined as multiagency, multidisciplinary service centers where
public and private agencies assign staff members on a full-time or
part-time basis in order to provide services to victims of domestic
violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, or human trafficking from one
location in order to reduce the number of times victims must tell
their story, reduce the number of places victims must go for help,
and increase access to services and support for victims and their
children. Staff members at a family justice center may be comprised
of, but are not limited to, the following:
(1) Law enforcement personnel.
(2) Medical personnel.
(3) District attorneys and city attorneys.
(4) Victim-witness program personnel.
(5) Domestic violence shelter service staff.
(6) Community-based rape crisis, domestic violence, and human
trafficking advocates.
(7) Social service agency staff members.
(8) Child welfare agency social workers.
(9) County health department staff.
(10) City or county welfare and public assistance workers.
(11) Nonprofit agency counseling professionals.
(12) Civil legal service providers.
(13) Supervised volunteers from partner agencies.
(14) Other professionals providing services.
(d) All family justice centers are encouraged to maintain an
informed consent process to authorize any sharing of confidential,
privileged, or protected information between individuals or agencies
working within a center. "Informed client consent" shall refer to a
process established by a family justice center to inform the victim
of all applicable confidentiality provisions of state and federal
law, inform the victim of the implications of waiving of these
confidentiality provisions, and a written process for authorization
to share information within a center. A victim may authorize the
disclosure and sharing of information among partner agencies for the
purposes of providing enhanced services. Authorization may be limited
in terms of individuals and agencies with whom and with which
information is shared and the duration of time under which
information may be shared.
(e) An authorization by a victim for sharing information within a
family justice center pursuant to this section shall not be construed
as a universal waiver of any existing evidentiary privilege which
holds that communications or documents between the victim and any
service provider, including, but not limited to, any lawyer,
advocate, therapist, doctor, or nurse, are confidential. Any oral or
written communication or any document authorized by the victim to be
shared for the purposes of enhancing safety and providing more
effective and efficient services to the victim of domestic violence,
sexual assault, elder abuse, or human trafficking shall not be
disclosed to any third party, unless that third-party disclosure is
authorized by the victim, required by other provisions of state or
federal law, or by court order.
(f) Family justice centers may use one comprehensive informed
consent form to permit sharing of information among partner agencies
to the extent that the form allows the victim to select which
agencies may share confidential information for the purposes of
providing needed services.
(g) No individual staff member, volunteer, or agency that has
victim information governed by this section shall be required to
disclose that information unless authorized by the victim or as
otherwise required to be disclosed by other provisions of state or
federal law, or by court order. It is the intent of the Legislature
to allow the sharing of information by a partner agency only if the
agency has an authorization from the victim and is for the purposes
of providing services to that victim within a family justice center.
(h) A disclosure of information authorized by the victim in a
family justice center, for the purposes of clinical assessment, risk
assessment, safety planning, or service delivery, shall not be deemed
a waiver of any privileges or confidentiality provisions provided
for in Sections 2263, 2918, 4982, and 6068 of the Business and
Professions Code, the lawyer-client privilege protected by Article 3
(commencing with Section 950) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the
Evidence Code, the physician-patient privilege protected by Article 6
(commencing with Section 990) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the
Evidence Code, the psychotherapist-patient privilege protected by
Article 7 (commencing with Section 1010) of Chapter 4 of Division 8
of the Evidence Code, the sexual assault counselor-victim privilege
protected by Article 8.5 (commencing with Section 1035) of Chapter 4
of Division 8 of the Evidence Code, or the domestic violence
counselor-victim privilege protected by Article 8.7 (commencing with
Section 1037) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the Evidence Code.
13751. (a) The National Family Justice Center Alliance (NFJCA)
may, subject to authorization from each individual victim, maintain
nonidentifying, aggregate data on victims receiving services from
family justice centers and the outcomes from the services provided.
The NFJCA may, for evaluation and monitoring purposes, report to the
Legislature annually by April 30th of each year on the findings and
outcomes documented by each center in the preceding year. Any report
submitted by NFJCA to the Legislature shall be submitted pursuant to
Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(b) Any family justice center may, subject to authorization from
each individual victim, provide nonidentifying, aggregate data on
victims receiving services and the outcomes from services provided to
the NFJCA by February 28th of each year for all victims receiving
services in the preceding year.
(c) Confidential records maintained by the NFJCA shall not be
subject to disclosure to any third party without the written
authorization by the victim who originally provided the information
to a particular family justice center. Under no circumstances shall
any identifying information or confidential personal information
about a victim be disclosed by the NFJCA, unless required by federal
law.
13752. (a) Subject to subdivision (c), no individual staff
member, volunteer, or agency professional of a family justice center
shall be civilly liable for information shared with other partner
agencies if a victim authorized the disclosure of that information
pursuant to Section 13750.
(b) Subject to subdivision (c), no family justice center shall be
liable for maintaining confidential victim information for the
purposes of providing nonidentifying aggregate information to the
NFJCA on an annual basis.
(c) The immunity from liability pursuant to subdivisions (a) and
(b) is contingent upon the existence of a formal family justice
center training program with mandatory training for all staff
members, volunteers, and agency professionals of not less than eight
hours per year on subjects, including, but not limited to,
confidentiality, information sharing, risk assessment, safety
planning, victim advocacy, and high-risk case response.