republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-1896.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Sexual assault counselor-victim privilege."
description: "Existing law establishes a privilege for a victim of a sexual assault to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, a confidential communication between the victim and a sexual assault counselor, if the privilege is claimed by the holder of the privilege, a person who is authorized to claim the privilege by the holder of the privilege, or the person who was the sexual assault counselor at the time of the confidential communication, except as specified. The definition of \"sexual assault counselor\" includes a person who is engaged in any office, hospital, institution, or center commonly known as a rape crisis center, whose primary purpose is the rendering of advice or assistance to victims of sexual assault and who meets certain requirements."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 1896"
citation: "California AB 1896 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Sexual assault counselor-victim privilege."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cervantes"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 21
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2018-01-22"
last_action: "2018-07-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0c1f296e-b5da-42dd-9818-3faa30354805"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1896"
source_hash: "db8b77dd5c4f6adf6b7a123f026be0df0e4bac49d45e9beab377532e33b347a1"
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 1896 (20172018) — Sexual assault counselor-victim privilege.

Existing law establishes a privilege for a victim of a sexual assault to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, a confidential communication between the victim and a sexual assault counselor, if the privilege is claimed by the holder of the privilege, a person who is authorized to claim the privilege by the holder of the privilege, or the person who was the sexual assault counselor at the time of the confidential communication, except as specified. The definition of "sexual assault counselor" includes a person who is engaged in any office, hospital, institution, or center commonly known as a rape crisis center, whose primary purpose is the rendering of advice or assistance to victims of sexual assault and who meets certain requirements.

## Version chain

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

1. **01/22/18 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1896&version=20170AB189699INT)
2. **04/04/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1896&version=20170AB189698AMD)
3. **05/10/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1896&version=20170AB189697AMD)
4. **07/18/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1896&version=20170AB189695CHP)
5. **AB1896** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1896)
6. **07/06/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1896&version=20170AB189696ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **13–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 1896 CERVANTES Consent Calendar Second Day — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. To Consent Calendar. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar AB1896 — **35–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cervantes — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-01-22** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2018-01-23** From printer. May be heard in committee February 22.
- **2018-03-22** Referred to Coms. on HIGHER ED. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-04** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HIGHER ED. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-05** Re-referred to Com. on HIGHER ED. `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-18** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (April 17). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2018-05-01** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2018-05-09** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (May 8). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2018-05-10** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2018-05-14** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-05-17** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 5219.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-05-17** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2018-05-30** Referred to Coms. on PUB. S. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-06-20** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 19). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-28** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 26). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-07-02** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-07-05** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 5112.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-07-05** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2018-07-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2018-07-18** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-07-18** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 123, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0c1f296e-b5da-42dd-9818-3faa30354805`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).