The debt collection segment is poised for explosive growth due to the financial disruption brought by COVID-19, and California is trying to get ahead of the game. On Sept. 25, the governor signed into law SB 908, the Debt Collection Licensing Act.

Code of Civil Procedure §2025.310 loosens restrictions on remote depositions, and Code of Civil Procedure section 1010.6 makes electronic service on parties a more common procedure.

AB 3070 declares that requiring proof of intentional bias in jury selection renders the procedure ineffective and that many of the reasons routinely advanced to justify the exclusion of jurors from protected groups are in fact associated with stereotypes about those groups.

AB 1867 provides supplemental paid leave for California employees and codifies provisions of Executive Order N-51-20 that had already provided paid sick leave for “food sector workers.”

SB 1141 expands the definition of domestic violence under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (Fam. Code, §§ 6200-6409) and makes California the first state to define “coercive control” in the law.

This year, the state set its sights on CIDs as a possible source of more rental units, including ADUs and JADUs, by enacting AB 3182. The bill makes several important changes to the laws governing CIDs aimed at removing barriers to leasing units in CIDs as a potential source of affordable housing.

The passage of Proposition 19 means that as of Feb. 16, 2021, California Constitution Article XIII A, §2(h) is inoperative. It is replaced with a parent-child or grandparent-child reassessment exclusion for only the transferor’s principal residence and a family farm.