AB 473 – Reorganizes And Recodifies The California Public Records Act

This bill recodifies and reorganizes the entirety of the California Public Records Act (CPRA), although the effective date of the change is delayed until January 1, 2023. The bill expressly states that the Legislature intended the reorganization to make no substantive change to the CPRA. The primary difference between the current CPRA and the reorganized version is that the latter splits up the various exemptions previously found in subdivisions of Government Code Section 6254 into multiple independent code sections, making the exemptions easier to read. Once the recodification takes effect, public agencies should review any policies regarding inspection of public records and update statutory citations accordingly.

(AB 473 adds Section 6276.50 to, and adds Division 10 (commending with Section 7920.000) to Title 1 of the Government Code.)