Skip to main content

Civ. Code, § 48.9 · Part 2. PERSONAL RIGHTS

Civ. Code, § 48.9

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) An organization which sponsors or conducts an anonymous witness program, and its employees and agents, shall not be liable in a civil action for damages resulting from its receipt of information regarding possible criminal activity or from dissemination of that information to a law enforcement agency.

(b) The immunity provided by this section shall apply to any civil action for damages, including, but not limited to, a defamation action or an action for damages resulting from retaliation against a person who provided information.

(c) The immunity provided by this section shall not apply in any of the following instances:

(1) The information was disseminated with actual knowledge that it was false.

(2) The name of the provider of the information was disseminated without that person’s authorization and the dissemination was not required by law.

(3) The name of the provider of information was obtained and the provider was not informed by the organization that the disclosure of his or her name may be required by law.

(d) As used in this section, an “anonymous witness program” means a program whereby information relating to alleged criminal activity is received from persons, whose names are not released without their authorization unless required by law, and disseminated to law enforcement agencies.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 1983, Ch. 495, Sec. 1.

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&sectionNum=48.9.
Text hash
sha256 6baa2e6b9f94d1b6fa0108fa894c18bccc8b4dca107fc9ecc522874d97e09f90
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

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.