Electronic Transactions Act

California Code of Civil Procedure Part 1, Title 4, Chapter 2, deals with levying officer electronic transaction act. Section 263 provides the name of Chapter 2. Section 263 contains legislative findings and declarations that modern technologies offer alternatives to paper-based systems and provide the means to create, store, retrieve, and transmit records and documents in electronic form resulting in increased efficiency, taxpayer savings, and improved public access to levying officers.

Section 263.1 provides definitions for the following terms: “electronic mail,” “e-mail,” “electronic records,” “electronic signature,” “fax,” “facsimile,” “fax machine,” “fax transmission,” “information processing system,” “instructions,” “levying officer instructions,” “legal entity,” “levying officer,” “record,” and “transmission record.”

Section 263.2 authorizes a levying officer to utilize an information processing system to create, generate, send, receive, store, display, retrieve, or process information, electronic records, and documents when based on industry standards and only to the extent that the levying officer has the resources and technological capacity to do so.

Section 263.3 requires five specified provisions to be complied with whenever the fax transmission of a document or record to a levying officer is authorized pursuant to this chapter.

Section 263.4 allows a levying officer to create, store, print, or transmit an electronic record in the place of, and in the same manner as, the paper record or document upon which the electronic record is based. An electronic record transmitted to a levying officer is required to be accompanied by all of four specified items of information. And, the person transmitting the electronic record is required to do two specified actions.

Section 263.6 provides, in lieu of returning to court the paper version of an original writ of execution, the levying officer may retain the original writ or an electronic copy of the original writ and file only a return of the levying officer’s actions. If the original writ is not returned to court, the levying officer must retain, for not less than two years after the levying officer’s return is filed with court, each of the four specified documents.

Section 263.7 requires a levying officer to exclude or redact the specified identifiers from any record or document made available to the public.