11163.3
. (a) A county may establish an interagency domestic
violence death review team to assist local agencies in identifying
and reviewing domestic violence deaths, including homicides and
suicides, and facilitating communication among the various agencies
involved in domestic violence cases. Interagency domestic violence
death review teams have been used successfully to ensure that
incidents of domestic violence and abuse are recognized and that
agency involvement is reviewed to develop recommendations for
policies and protocols for community prevention and intervention
initiatives to reduce and eradicate the incidence of domestic
violence.
(b) For purposes of this section, "abuse" has the meaning set
forth in Section 6203 of the Family Code and "domestic violence" has
the meaning set forth in Section 6211 of the Family Code.
(c) A county may develop a protocol that may be used as a
guideline to assist coroners and other persons who perform autopsies
on domestic violence victims in the identification of domestic
violence, in the determination of whether domestic violence
contributed to death or whether domestic violence had occurred prior
to death, but was not the actual cause of death, and in the proper
written reporting procedures for domestic violence, including the
designation of the cause and mode of death.
(d) County domestic violence death review teams shall be comprised
of, but not limited to, the following:
(1) Experts in the field of forensic pathology.
(2) Medical personnel with expertise in domestic violence abuse.
(3) Coroners and medical examiners.
(4) Criminologists.
(5) District attorneys and city attorneys.
(6) Domestic violence shelter service staff and battered women's
advocates.
(7) Law enforcement personnel.
(8) Representatives of local agencies that are involved with
domestic violence abuse reporting.
(9) County health department staff who deal with domestic violence
victims' health issues.
(10) Representatives of local child abuse agencies.
(11) Local professional associations of persons described in
paragraphs (1) to (10), inclusive.
(e) An oral or written communication or a document shared within
or produced by a domestic violence death review team related to a
domestic violence death review is confidential and not subject to
disclosure or discoverable by a third party. An oral or written
communication or a document provided by a third party to a domestic
violence death review team, or between a third party and a domestic
violence death review team, is confidential and not subject to
disclosure or discoverable by a third party. Notwithstanding the
foregoing, recommendations of a domestic violence death review team
upon the completion of a review may be disclosed at the discretion of
a majority of the members of the domestic violence death review
team.
(f) Each organization represented on a domestic violence death
review team may share with other members of the team information in
its possession concerning the victim who is the subject of the review
or any person who was in contact with the victim and any other
information deemed by the organization to be pertinent to the review.
Any information shared by an organization with other members of a
team is confidential. This provision shall permit the disclosure to
members of the team of any information deemed confidential,
privileged, or prohibited from disclosure by any other statute.
(g) Written and oral information may be disclosed to a domestic
violence death review team established pursuant to this section. The
team may make a request in writing for the information sought and any
person with information of the kind described in paragraph (2) may
rely on the request in determining whether information may be
disclosed to the team.
(1) An individual or agency that has information governed by this
subdivision shall not be required to disclose information. The intent
of this subdivision is to allow the voluntary disclosure of
information by the individual or agency that has the information.
(2) The following information may be disclosed pursuant to this
subdivision:
(A) Notwithstanding Section 56.10 of the Civil Code, medical
information.
(B) Notwithstanding Section 5328 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, mental health information.
(C) Notwithstanding Section 15633.5 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code, information from elder abuse reports and
investigations, except the identity of persons who have made reports,
which shall not be disclosed.
(D) Notwithstanding Section 11167.5 of the Penal Code, information
from child abuse reports and investigations, except the identity of
persons who have made reports, which shall not be disclosed.
(E) State summary criminal history information, criminal offender
record information, and local summary criminal history information,
as defined in Sections 11075, 11105, and 13300 of the Penal Code.
(F) Notwithstanding Section 11163.2 of the Penal Code, information
pertaining to reports by health practitioners of persons suffering
from physical injuries inflicted by means of a firearm or of persons
suffering physical injury where the injury is a result of assaultive
or abusive conduct, and information relating to whether a physician
referred the person to local domestic violence services as
recommended by Section 11161 of the Penal Code.
(G) Notwithstanding Section 827 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, information in any juvenile court proceeding.
(H) Information maintained by the Family Court, including
information relating to the Family Conciliation Court Law pursuant to
Section 1818 of the Family Code, and Mediation of Custody and
Visitation Issues pursuant to Section 3177 of the Family Code.
(I) Information provided to probation officers in the course of
the performance of their duties, including, but not limited to, the
duty to prepare reports pursuant to Section 1203.10 of the Penal
Code, as well as the information on which these reports are based.
(J) Notwithstanding Section 10850 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, records of in-home supportive services, unless disclosure is
prohibited by federal law.
(3) The disclosure of written and oral information authorized
under this subdivision shall apply notwithstanding Sections 2263,
2918, 4982, and 6068 of the Business and Professions Code, or the
lawyer-client privilege protected by Article 3 (commencing with
Section 950) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the Evidence Code, the
physician-patient privilege protected by Article 6 (commencing with
Section 990) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the Evidence Code, the
psychotherapist-patient privilege protected by Article 7 (commencing
with Section 1010) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the Evidence Code,
the sexual assault counselor-victim privilege protected by Article
8.5 (commencing with Section 1035) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the
Evidence Code, the domestic violence counselor-victim privilege
protected by Article 8.7 (commencing with Section 1037) of Chapter 4
of Division 8 of the Evidence Code, and the human trafficking
caseworker-victim privilege protected by Article 8.8 (commencing with
Section 1038) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the Evidence Code.