Protective orders: Wyland’s Law.

Stefani’s Wyland’s Law would add a new provision to the Family Code authorizing the Department of Justice, or a contracted vendor, to establish an automated protected-person information and notification system that provides petitioners or protected persons with automated access to information about their protective-order case from the California Restraining and Protective Order System, subject to legislative appropriation.

The system would make available three data elements: whether the department has received a record of the protective order, whether the order has been successfully served on the restrained person, and, notwithstanding other law, whether the restrained person has attempted to purchase firearms or ammunition while the order is in effect. In addition, the bill requires certain records related to transmission and receipt of protective orders to be publicly accessible under the California Public Records Act, with two specific public-records: (1) a record showing whether the superior court has fulfilled its transmission obligations, open to inspection and copying, and (2) a record showing receipt of information about a protective order by the department, not exempt from disclosure. The bill defines “department” as the Department of Justice and “protective order” to include all order types listed in the Family Code and their reissuance, extension, modification, or termination.

Implementation would be contingent on an appropriation, with the department authorized to establish the system or contract with a vendor to operate it and to draw information from the California Restraining and Protective Order System. The bill reaffirms the existing statutory duty for superior courts to transmit protective orders to the DOJ, while extending public-access obligations to associated transmission-and-receipt records. It also specifies that the new public-records disclosures are declaratory of existing law in some respects, and subject to the California Public Records Act in others, without detailing authentication, privacy protections, or user-eligibility controls for the automated access portal.