Fabio
79 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
79 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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type: "Bill"
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title: "Attorney's fees: book accounts."
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description: "Under existing law, in any action on a contract based on a book account, as defined, that does not provide for attorney's fees and costs, the prevailing party on the contract is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and the court is required to fix the attorney's fees in an amount that does not exceed the lesser of $960 for book accounts that are maintained for personal, family, or household purposes of a natural person, and $1,200 for book accounts that are maintained for all other purposes, or 25% of the principal obligation owing on the contract, as applicable."
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jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
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legislature: "California Legislature"
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session: "20252026"
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identifier: "AB 78"
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citation: "California AB 78 (20252026)"
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classification: ["bill"]
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subjects: ["Attorney'sfees", "bookaccounts"]
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status: "enacted"
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primary_sponsors: ["Chen"]
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version_count: 4
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action_count: 16
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vote_count: 4
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first_action: "2024-12-18"
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last_action: "2025-07-14"
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source: "openstates"
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source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a2e892ff-a3df-49d6-966a-e336578ab3fc"
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source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB78"
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source_hash: "b37f6c1b862ef13be463b378cf9977609895edae43207686680af1939004782b"
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vintage: "2026-07-01"
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source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
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retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
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confidence: "reported"
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tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
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---
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# California AB 78 (20252026) — Attorney's fees: book accounts.
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Under existing law, in any action on a contract based on a book account, as defined, that does not provide for attorney's fees and costs, the prevailing party on the contract is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and the court is required to fix the attorney's fees in an amount that does not exceed the lesser of $960 for book accounts that are maintained for personal, family, or household purposes of a natural person, and $1,200 for book accounts that are maintained for all other purposes, or 25% of the principal obligation owing on the contract, as applicable.
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## Version chain
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The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
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1. **12/18/24 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB78&version=20250AB7899INT)
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2. **07/14/25 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB78&version=20250AB7897CHP)
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3. **AB78** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB78)
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4. **07/08/25 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB78&version=20250AB7898ENR)
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## Votes
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- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **12–0** (pass) · upper
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- AB 78 Chen Consent Calendar Second Day — **72–0** (pass) · lower
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- Consent Calendar 2nd — **35–0** (pass) · upper
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- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **12–0** (pass) · lower
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## Sponsors
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- Chen — primary (person)
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## Timeline
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The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
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- **2024-12-18** Introduced. To print. `introduction`
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- **2024-12-19** From printer. May be heard in committee January 18.
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- **2025-01-06** Read first time. `reading-1`
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- **2025-02-03** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
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- **2025-03-04** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (March 4). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
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- **2025-03-05** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
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- **2025-03-10** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 72. Noes 0. Page 572.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
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- **2025-03-11** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
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- **2025-05-07** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
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- **2025-06-25** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (June 24). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
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- **2025-06-26** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
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- **2025-07-03** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 35. Noes 0. Page 1931.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
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- **2025-07-03** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
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- **2025-07-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11 a.m.
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- **2025-07-14** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
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- **2025-07-14** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 28, Statutes of 2025. `became-law`
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## Source
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OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a2e892ff-a3df-49d6-966a-e336578ab3fc`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).
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