Civ. Code, § 1788.58 · Title 1.6C.5. Fair Debt Buying Practices
Civ. Code, § 1788.58
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
In an action brought by a debt buyer on a consumer debt:
(a) The complaint shall allege all of the following:
(1) That the plaintiff is a debt buyer.
(2) The nature of the underlying debt and the consumer transaction or transactions from which it is derived, in a short and plain statement.
(3) That the debt buyer is the sole owner of the debt at issue, or has authority to assert the rights of all owners of the debt.
(4) The debt balance at charge off and an explanation of the amount, nature, and reason for all post-charge-off interest and fees, if any, imposed by the charge-off creditor or any subsequent purchasers of the debt. This paragraph shall not be deemed to require a specific itemization, but the explanation shall identify separately the charge-off balance, the total of any post-charge-off interest, and the total of any post-charge-off fees.
(5) The date of default or the date of the last payment.
(6) The name and an address of the charge-off creditor at the time of charge off and the charge-off creditor’s account number associated with the debt. The charge-off creditor’s name and address shall be in sufficient form so as to reasonably identify the charge-off creditor.
(7) The name and last known address of the debtor as they appeared in the charge-off creditor’s records prior to the sale of the debt. If the debt was sold prior to January 1, 2014, the debtor’s name and last known address as they appeared in the debt owner’s records on December 31, 2013, shall be sufficient.
(8) The names and addresses of all persons or entities that purchased the debt after charge off, including the plaintiff debt buyer. The names and addresses shall be in sufficient form so as to reasonably identify each such purchaser.
(9) That the debt buyer has complied with Section 1788.52.
(b) A copy of the contract or other document described in subdivision (b) of Section 1788.52 shall be attached to the complaint.
(c) The complaint in an action brought by a debt buyer for debt that originated with a general acute care hospital licensed pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code shall also contain both of the following:
(1) The information contained in paragraph (6) of subdivision (e) of Section 127425 of the Health and Safety Code and a statement identifying the language in which that information was sent to the debtor.
(2) Copies of the application for financial assistance that was provided to the debtor by the hospital and the notice that was provided to the debtor by the hospital about applying for financial assistance, attached to the complaint. If the notice was provided as part of the hospital bill that cannot be separated, the bill shall be redacted to remove confidential information, or a sample hospital bill with the substance of the notice regarding financial assistance in the format in use at the time the patient was billed may be provided.
(d) The requirements of this title shall not be deemed to require the disclosure in public records of personal, financial, or medical information, the confidentiality of which is protected by any state or federal law.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 473, Sec. 4. (AB 1020) Effective January 1, 2022.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1788.58.
- Text hash
- sha256 b4c301a67a427eb6095daa6500fac6f0d0dc7a6120e1717a003b6f7aa96d2e87
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Cited by 2 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Civ. Code, § 1788.58. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Code of Civil Procedure
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.