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Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5004.5 · Chapter 1. General Provisions

Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5004.5

Verbatim from the official edition

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

(a) Notwithstanding any other law, a legal guardian, conservator, or other person who reasonably believes a person with a mental health disorder or developmental disability is the victim of a crime may file a report with an appropriate law enforcement agency. The report shall specify the nature of the alleged offense and any pertinent evidence. Notwithstanding any other law, the information in that report shall not be deemed confidential in any manner. No person shall incur any civil or criminal liability as a result of making a report authorized by this section unless it can be shown that a false report was made and the person knew or should have known that the report was false.

(b) Where the district attorney of the county in which the alleged offense occurred finds, based upon the evidence contained in the report and any other evidence obtained through regular investigatory procedures, that a reasonable probability exists that a crime or public offense has been committed and that the person with the mental health disorder or developmental disability is the victim, the district attorney may file a complaint verified on information and belief.

(c) The filing of a report by a legal guardian, conservator, or any other person pursuant to this section shall not constitute evidence that a crime or public offense has been committed and shall not be considered in any manner by the trier of fact.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 144, Sec. 86. (AB 1847) Effective January 1, 2015.

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=WIC&sectionNum=5004.5.
Text hash
sha256 ef08dd7c2f64ad279b9193bd0dbbdb0055bbf83e33e8f0910118f0fa8b7f7e29
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.