Civ. Code, § 1798.203 · Title 1.81.6. Identity Theft in Business Entity Filings
Civ. Code, § 1798.203
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) In addition to any of the other remedies provided under this title, a person who has learned that their personal identifying information has been used unlawfully, as described in subdivision (a) of Section 530.5 of the Penal Code, in a business entity filing may file with the Secretary of State a disclaimer of proper authority, as described in subdivision (b) and on a form prescribed by the Secretary of State, so long as the business entity has not been dissolved or terminated at the time of filing the disclaimer.
(b) A disclaimer of proper authority shall be signed and verified under penalty of perjury by the person claiming their personal identifying information was unlawfully used in the business entity filing as described in subdivision (a) and shall contain all of the following information:
(1) The name of the corporation, limited liability company, or limited partnership as it appears on the records of the Secretary of State.
(2) The Secretary of State file number for the corporation, limited liability company, or limited partnership.
(3) The entity type.
(4) The date the business entity document containing their personal identifying information was filed.
(5) The title of the business entity document that contained their personal identifying information.
(6) A description of the type of personal identifying information that the person claims was used unlawfully in the business entity filing.
(7) A statement that the person signing the disclaimer of proper authority did not authorize the use of their personal identifying information within the business entity document and that they reasonably suspect that their personal identifying information was included in furtherance of an unlawful purpose, as described in subdivision (a) of Section 530.5 of the Penal Code.
(8) A statement that the disclaimer of proper authority does not constitute a determination of any court or law enforcement investigation surrounding the facts and circumstances of the use of the information within the business entity document.
(c) The fee for filing a disclaimer of proper authority pursuant to this section shall be thirty dollars ($30) to cover the reasonable costs to the Secretary of State of processing that form.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2024, Ch. 783, Sec. 2. (SB 1168) Effective January 1, 2025.
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=1798.203.
- Text hash
- sha256 cc3425b3d814ce3255f4778430ef8be690914517422f1637f0980c1bd505973c
- 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.
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.