SB 1279 Department of Insurance Electronic Records

Department of Insurance Electronic Records Effective 01/01/09, The Department of Insurance will no longer send to the County Clerk for filing the following documents: –Annual surety update lists –Certificate of authority issued to a surety company –Changes regarding certificate of authority issued to surety company –Bail agent appointments / cancellation / revocations –Bail agent update lists Instead, the Department of Insurance will maintain this information in an electronic database accessible through their website at When issuing a Certificate of Authority pursuant to CCP (a), or a Certificate of No Record pursuant to CCP (a), the County Clerk will solely rely on the information found on the Department of Insurance website.

SEARCHING FOR A SURETY COMPANYwww.insurance.ca.gov

Searching for a Surety Company continued You can search records two different ways – either through the Consumers link in the upper left – or, through the Consumers link under Quick Links at the right of the page

Searching for a Surety Company continued Instructions for searching from the Consumers tab in the upper left corner of the website

Searching for a Surety Company continued Instructions for searching from the Consumers Tab under the “Quick Links” on the right side of the page

Searching for a Surety Company continued No matter which way you choose to search – you will end up here

Searching for a Surety Company continued

Confirm status –If status is Cease & Desist – DO NOT issue certificate of authority. Refer all questions to the Department of Insurance –If a certificate has been revoked, canceled, suspended of annulled the surety information will not show in the index – your search will return zero results –If the surety has not been given authority to act in CA, the surety information will now show in the index – your search will return zero results

Searching for a Surety Company continued Once search is complete and you have verified the surety is valid and authorized to act in CA, issue the certificate of authority. There are no changes in the process for issuing the certificate of authority. You are just locating the information on the Department of Insurance website rather than the paper copy you used to have on file in your office.

Searching for Bail Agent List Due to the limited number of requests received by County Clerks to verify and/or view this information, I have chosen not to spend a lot of time preparing instructions related to searching these records. Therefore, this hand-out does not give detailed instructions for searching the Department of Insurance Database for Bail Agent Listing information. To view those records, under Quick Links to the right of the screen, click the drop down menu under Online Services, scroll the list and select Bail Report for County Clerk Offices Online Services. –Follow the links to search the records –Contact the Department of Insurance with any questions regarding the records and/or searching the database