Veh. Code, § 1808.21 · Article 3. Records of Department
Veh. Code, § 1808.21
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Any residence address in any record of the department is confidential and shall not be disclosed to any person, except a court, law enforcement agency, or other government agency, or as authorized in Section 1808.22 or 1808.23.
(b) Release of any mailing address or part thereof in any record of the department may be restricted to a release for purposes related to the reasons for which the information was collected, including, but not limited to, the assessment of driver risk, or ownership of vehicles or vessels. This restriction does not apply to a release to a court, a law enforcement agency, or other governmental agency, or a person who has been issued a requester code pursuant to Section 1810.2.
(c) Any person providing the department with a mailing address shall declare, under penalty of perjury, that the mailing address is a valid, existing, and accurate mailing address and shall consent to receive service of process pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 415.20, subdivision (a) of Section 415.30, and Section 416.90 of the Code of Civil Procedure at the mailing address.
(d) (1) Any registration or driver’s license record of a person may be suppressed from any other person, except those persons specified in subdivision (a), if the person requesting the suppression submits either of the following:
(A) A certificate or identification card issued to the person as a program participant by the Secretary of State pursuant to Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 6205) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code.
(B) Verification acceptable to the department that he or she has reasonable cause to believe either of the following:
(i) That he or she is the subject of stalking, as specified in Section 1708.7 of the Civil Code or Section 646.9 of the Penal Code.
(ii) That there exists a threat of death or great bodily injury to his or her person, as defined in Section 12022.7 of the Penal Code.
(2) Upon suppression of a record, each request for information about that record shall be authorized by the subject of the record or verified as legitimate by other investigative means by the department before the information is released.
(e) (1) The suppression of a record pursuant to a verification under subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) shall occur for one year after approval by the department. Not less than 60 days prior to the date the suppression of the record would otherwise expire, the department shall notify the subject of the record of its impending expiration. The suppression may be continued for two additional periods of one year each if a letter is submitted to the department stating that the person continues to have a reasonable cause to believe that he or she is the subject of stalking or that there exists a threat of death or great bodily injury as described in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (d). The suppression may be additionally continued at the end of the second one-year period by submitting verification acceptable to the department. The notification described in this subdivision shall instruct the person of the method to reapply for record suppression.
(2) The suppression of a record made in accordance with the submission of a certificate or identification card under subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) shall occur for four years following the submission of the certificate or identification card described in this paragraph. The suppression may be continued for an additional four-year period, and for subsequent four-year periods, upon the submission of a current certificate or identification card described in this paragraph.
(f) For the purposes of subdivisions (d) and (e), “verification acceptable to the department” means recent police reports, court documentation, or other documentation from a law enforcement agency.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 720, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2004.
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=VEH§ionNum=1808.21.
- Text hash
- sha256 7af08d69780e7ee7266b9a9a2f30b5051547613988a5a2bfd912659742c6d1bc
- 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.
Code of Civil Procedure
Penal Code
Cited by 7 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Veh. Code, § 1808.21. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Government Code
Vehicle 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.