---
type: "Bill"
title: "Service of process: private investigators."
description: "Existing law requires a person to be granted access to a gated community for a reasonable period of time for the purpose of performing lawful service of process or service of a subpoena, upon identifying to the guard the person or persons to be served, and upon displaying a current driver's license or other identification and specified documentation to show the individual is either acting as a representative of a county sheriff or marshal or is a registered process server."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 1720"
citation: "California AB 1720 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Service of process: private investigators."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Torres"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 16
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2012-02-16"
last_action: "2012-07-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/666be158-6e3d-4bf0-8746-732bb07ea424"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1720"
source_hash: "c456a3c9daad0d6a1be7fad471c822093ed3f677dee75ae133b5c4f5c8a332c9"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1720 (20112012) — Service of process: private investigators.

Existing law requires a person to be granted access to a gated community for a reasonable period of time for the purpose of performing lawful service of process or service of a subpoena, upon identifying to the guard the person or persons to be served, and upon displaying a current driver's license or other identification and specified documentation to show the individual is either acting as a representative of a county sheriff or marshal or is a registered process server.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/16/12 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1720&version=20110AB172099INT)
2. **03/22/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1720&version=20110AB172098AMD)
3. **07/13/12 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1720&version=20110AB172096CHP)
4. **AB1720** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1720)
5. **07/02/12 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1720&version=20110AB172097ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended, to Consent Calendar. — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1720 TORRES Consent Calendar Second Day — **68–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **4–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB1720 Torres By Corbett — **31–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Torres — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2012-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2012-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 18.
- **2012-03-01** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2012-03-21** From committee: Do pass as amended. To consent calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (March 20). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-03-22** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-03-26** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-03-29** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 68. Noes 0. Page 4186.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-03-29** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2012-04-19** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2012-06-13** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 4. Noes 0.) (June 12). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-06-14** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-06-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 31. Noes 1. Page 4178.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-06-28** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2012-07-05** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11:30 a.m.
- **2012-07-13** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2012-07-13** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 113, Statutes of 2012.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/666be158-6e3d-4bf0-8746-732bb07ea424`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).