Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.521 · Article 3. Remote Access by a Party, Party's Designee, Party's Attorney, Court-Appointed Person, or Authorized Person Working in a Legal Organization or Qualified Legal Services Project
Remote access by a court-appointed person
Text — As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
(a) Remote access generally permitted
(1) A court may grant a court-appointed person remote access to electronic records in any action or proceeding in which the person has been appointed by the court.
(2) Court-appointed persons include an attorney appointed to represent a minor child under Family Code section 3150; a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer in a juvenile proceeding; an attorney appointed under Probate Code section 1470, 1471, or 1474; an investigator appointed under Probate Code section 1454; a probate referee designated under Probate Code section 8920; a fiduciary, as defined in Probate Code section 39; an attorney appointed under Welfare and Institutions Code section 5365; or a guardian ad litem appointed under Code of Civil Procedure section 372 or Probate Code section 1003.
(b) Level of remote access
A court-appointed person may be provided with the same level of remote access to electronic records as the court-appointed person would be legally entitled to if he or she were to appear at the courthouse to inspect the court records.
(c) Terms of remote access
(1) A court-appointed person may remotely access electronic records only for purposes of fulfilling the responsibilities for which he or she was appointed.
(2) Any distribution for sale of electronic records obtained remotely under the rules in this article is strictly prohibited.
(3) All laws governing confidentiality and disclosure of court records apply to the records obtained under this article.
(4) A court-appointed person must comply with any other terms of remote access required by the court.
(5) Failure to comply with these rules may result in the imposition of sanctions, including termination of access.
Notes and commentary — not rule text
History
Rule 2.521 adopted effective January 1, 2019.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As posted by the Judicial Council of California (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://courts.ca.gov/cms/rules/index/two/rule2_521
- Text hash
- sha256 48ce4905b531a97ee571c401719446a62fb158587b986c66c1f11a69784c873d
- Composed by
- compose_crc.py 2026-10-22: the Judicial Council's rule pages read paragraph by paragraph; verify_crc.py's second reading of the Council's per-title PDFs finds every paragraph
This rule 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.
Code of Civil Procedure
Probate Code
- Prob. Code, § 39Printed as Probate Code section 39
- Prob. Code, § 1003Printed as Probate Code section 1003
- Prob. Code, § 1454Printed as Probate Code section 1454
- Prob. Code, § 1470Printed as Probate Code section 1470, 1471, or 1474
- Prob. Code, § 1471Printed as Probate Code section 1470, 1471, or 1474
- Prob. Code, § 1474Printed as Probate Code section 1470, 1471, or 1474
- Prob. Code, § 8920Printed as Probate Code section 8920
Welfare and Institutions 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.