Gov. Code, § 6204.1 · Chapter 3.01. Public Records Protection and Recovery
Gov. Code, § 6204.1
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) If a person, organization, or institution that receives a written notice and demand from the secretary pursuant to Section 6204 does not deliver the described record, does not respond to the notice and demand within the required time, or does not adequately demonstrate that the record does not belong to the state or a local agency, the secretary may ask the Attorney General to petition the superior court in the county in which the records are located for an order requiring the return of the record.
(b) After a hearing, and upon a finding that the specified record is in the possession of a person, organization, or institution not authorized by law to possess the record, the court shall order the record to be delivered to the archivist or other government official designated by the court.
(c) The court may issue any order necessary to protect the record from destruction, alteration, transfer, conveyance, or alienation by the person, organization, or institution in possession of the record, and may order the record to be surrendered into the custody of the archivist pending the court’s decision on the petition. The court may order the record to be available for public access under a request made pursuant to the California Public Records Act (Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000)).
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 615, Sec. 142. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, pursuant to Section 463 of Stats. 2021, Ch. 615.
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§ionNum=6204.1.
- Text hash
- sha256 dae59c42f64cd0ffac5b91ceecb7945d10730ff578595d1ee43cb3268df263d3
- 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 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Gov. Code, § 6204.1. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Government 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.