republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/sb-187.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act."
description: "Existing law, the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, regulates the collection of consumer debts by debt collectors, as defined. The act defines \"consumer debt\" to mean money, property, or their equivalent, due or owing or alleged to be due or owing from a natural person by reason of a consumer credit transaction. The act further defines \"consumer credit transaction\" to mean a transaction between a natural person and another person in which property, services, or money is acquired on credit by that natural person from the other person primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. The act also defines \"debt collector\" to exclude an attorney or counselor at law."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "SB 187"
citation: "California SB 187 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Wieckowski"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 24
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2019-01-30"
last_action: "2019-10-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f5ab68cd-c203-4f06-9470-6c81818494a1"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB187"
source_hash: "21cf54b378b30c7cdbb8b6cc9034d92d5c95976f916fee42ceab701b640ec967"
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 SB 187 (20192020) — Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Existing law, the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, regulates the collection of consumer debts by debt collectors, as defined. The act defines "consumer debt" to mean money, property, or their equivalent, due or owing or alleged to be due or owing from a natural person by reason of a consumer credit transaction. The act further defines "consumer credit transaction" to mean a transaction between a natural person and another person in which property, services, or money is acquired on credit by that natural person from the other person primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. The act also defines "debt collector" to exclude an attorney or counselor at law.

## Version chain

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

1. **01/30/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB187&version=20190SB18799INT)
2. **03/18/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB187&version=20190SB18798AMD)
3. **04/22/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB187&version=20190SB18797AMD)
4. **10/07/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB187&version=20190SB18795CHP)
5. **SB187** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB187)
6. **09/03/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB187&version=20190SB18796ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **12–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **12–0** (pass) · lower
- SB 187 Wieckowski Senate Third Reading By Mayes — **74–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **8–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Wieckowski — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-30** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2019-01-31** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 2.
- **2019-02-06** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-18** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-03-22** Set for hearing April 9.
- **2019-04-10** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 8. Noes 0. Page 653.) (April 9). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-04-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-04-22** Read third time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-04-22** Ordered to second reading.
- **2019-04-23** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-02** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 921.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-02** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2019-05-16** Referred to Coms. on B. & F. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-05** June 10 hearing postponed by committee.
- **2019-06-25** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (June 24). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-07-02** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (July 2). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-07-03** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-07-08** From consent calendar on motion of Assembly Member Calderon.
- **2019-07-08** Ordered to third reading.
- **2019-08-30** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 2907.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-08-30** In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
- **2019-09-06** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2019-10-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-07** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 545, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/f5ab68cd-c203-4f06-9470-6c81818494a1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).