Gov. Code, § 13962 · Article 6. Administration

Gov. Code, § 13962

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

(a) The board shall publicize through the board, law enforcement agencies, victim centers, hospitals, medical, mental health or other counseling service providers, and other public or private agencies, the existence of the program established pursuant to this chapter, including the procedures for obtaining compensation under the program.

(b) It shall be the duty of every local law enforcement agency to inform crime victims of the provisions of this chapter, of the existence of victim centers, and in counties where no victim center exists, to provide application forms to victims who desire to seek compensation pursuant to this chapter. The board shall provide application forms and all other documents that local law enforcement agencies and victim centers may require to comply with this section. The board, in cooperation with victim centers, shall set standards to be followed by local law enforcement agencies for this purpose and may require them to file with the board a description of the procedures adopted by each agency to comply with the standards. The board shall conduct outreach to local law enforcement agencies about their duties under this section.

(c) Every local law enforcement agency shall annually provide to the board contact information for the Victims of Crime Liaison Officer designated pursuant to Section 649.36 of Title 2 of the California Code of Regulations.

(d) The board shall annually make available to the Victims of Crime Liaison Officer at every local law enforcement agency one hour of training on victim compensation in California and materials to educate the officers and staff in their law enforcement agencies and publicize the program within their jurisdictions.

(e) The board’s outreach pursuant to subdivision (a) and training pursuant to subdivision (d) shall affirm that neither access to information about victim compensation, nor an application for compensation, shall be denied on the basis of the victim’s or derivative victim’s membership in, association with, or affiliation with, a gang, or on the basis of the victim’s or derivative victim’s designation as a suspected gang member, associate, or affiliate in a shared gang database, as defined in Section 186.34 of the Penal Code.

(f) The board’s outreach pursuant to subdivision (a) and training pursuant to subdivision (d) shall affirm that neither access to information about victim compensation, nor an application for compensation, shall be denied on the basis of the victim’s or derivative victim’s documentation or immigration status.

(g) (1) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2024, only if General Fund moneys over the multiyear forecasts beginning in the 2024–25 fiscal year are available to support ongoing augmentations and actions, and if an appropriation is made to backfill the Restitution Fund to support the actions in this section. If those conditions are met, this section is repealed January 1, 2025.

(2) The amendments made by the act adding this subdivision shall become operative on January 1, 2023.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 771, Sec. 10. (AB 160) Effective September 29, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, by its own provisions. Conditionally inoperative July 1, 2024, as prescribed by its own provisions. Conditionally repealed January 1, 2025, as prescribed by its own provisions. See later operative version added by Sec. 11 of Stats. 2022, Ch. 771.

Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel

Conditionally operative July 1, 2024, as prescribed by its own provisions.

(b) It shall be the duty of every local law enforcement agency to inform crime victims of the provisions of this chapter, of the existence of victim centers, and of the existence of trauma recovery centers as described under Section 13963.1, and to provide application forms to victims who desire to seek compensation pursuant to this chapter. The board shall provide application forms and all other documents that local law enforcement agencies and victim centers may require to comply with this section. The board, in cooperation with victim centers, shall set standards to be followed by local law enforcement agencies for this purpose and may require them to file with the board a description of the procedures adopted by each agency to comply with the standards. The board shall conduct outreach to local law enforcement agencies about their duties under this section.

(g) (1) The board shall provide every general acute care hospital in the state that operates an emergency department with both of the following:

(A) A poster developed by the board describing the existence of the program established pursuant to this chapter, including the procedures for obtaining compensation under the program.

(B) Application forms to distribute to victims, derivative victims, and their family members who desire to seek compensation pursuant to this chapter.

(2) It shall be the duty of every general acute care hospital to display a poster provided to the hospital pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) prominently in the lobby or waiting area of its emergency department.

(3) At the request of the hospital, the board shall provide the documents described in paragraph (1) in any of the languages listed in paragraph (4) of subdivision (d) of Section 13952.

(h) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2024, only if General Fund moneys over the multiyear forecasts beginning in the 2024–25 fiscal year are available to support ongoing augmentations and actions, and if an appropriation is made to backfill the Restitution Fund to support the actions in this section.

History (another version listed by the Legislative Counsel)

Repealed (in Sec. 10) and added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 771, Sec. 11. (AB 160) Effective September 29, 2022. Conditionally operative July 1, 2024, as prescribed by its own provisions.

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=GOV&sectionNum=13962.
Text hash: sha256 ef38f49bfadff9474c4afb56cee694e3d8fbd86e5261200a74954ddcf224e90e
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

the Legislative Counsel lists 2 versions of this section; the version shown is the one in force by its history, the other is under "Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel" (conditional)
the version shown operates conditionally by its own provisions (its history says so)

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.

Penal Code

Pen. Code, § 186.34Printed as Section 186.34 of the Penal Code

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.