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Legal Opinions

Tools

Quo Warranto

A quo warranto action is filed typically to remove a person from public office. The Attorney General must approve all quo warranto actions filed by private individuals. This protects public officers from frivolous lawsuits.

Submitting Opinion Requests

Only those designated by law may request an Attorney General’s legal opinion. To learn more, see FAQs: Who may request an Attorney General’s opinion?

State and local public officials and government agencies authorized to request an opinion should submit their legal questions to:

Susan Lee, Supervising Deputy Attorney General

Opinion Unit 455 Golden Gate Ave., Suite 11000 San Francisco, CA 94102

As the chief law officer of the state, the California Attorney General provides legal opinions upon request to designated state and local public officials and government agencies on issues arising in the course of their duties. The formal legal opinions of the Attorney General have been accorded "great respect" and "great weight" by the courts.

Legal opinions of the Attorney General issued since 1986 may be viewed on this website and searched using the online search links below. In addition to searching opinions by year and by key words or phrases, you may now search for opinions by specific citations.

Monthly Opinion Report - View the current report of pending assignments and activities of the Opinion Unit with links to newly issued opinions.

Yearly Index - View yearly indexes since 1997 with links to opinions published in a particular year.

Opinions Search - Search opinions issued since 1986 by word, phrase, or opinion number (e.g., 01-107).

How to Obtain a Copy

A copy of a published opinion may be obtained by contacting the Opinion Unit:

Office of the Attorney General Opinion Unit, Attn. Patricia Freeman P. O. Box 944255 Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

Printed volumes of Opinions of the Attorney General of California are published by Lexis Publishing and may be read in public libraries.

Recent Legal Opinions

09-212, pdf For purposes of Vehicle Code section 35782(b), the term “unusually large or heavy load” has no uniform statewide definition, but rather refers to a vehicle load that (1) exceeds the statutory siz... more

08-801, pdf 1. Otherwise eligible military veterans residing in California are entitled to all state-funded veterans’ benefits, including state-funded veterans’ housing, regardless of sexual orientation or gender... more

08-804, pdf The single document requirement for automobile sales contracts is satisfied if the document consists of multiple pages that are attached to each other and integrated by means such as inclusive sequent... more

08-806, pdf 1. The Los Angeles Community College District Joint Labor Management Benefits Committee is not required to comply with the Ralph M. Brown Act. 2. Because we conclude that the Joint Labor... more

07-801, pdf Although the Constitution generally prohibits the Department of Transportation from selling or renting real property that it has acquired with motor vehicle fuel and use tax revenues for less than tha... more