HB 1688 -- Insurance

Sponsor:  Auer

This bill grants an evidentiary privilege to an insurance
company's voluntary self-evaluative compliance audit.  Such a
privilege would extend only to those documents collected or
developed for the primary purpose and in the course of the
audit.  Information otherwise required by law or obtained
independently does not fall within the privilege.  A court,
after an in camera review, may order privileged information
disclosed if it finds the privilege is asserted for fraudulent
purposes or when the insurer failed to take reasonable
corrective action to eliminate noncompliance with insurance laws
within a reasonable time.  Also, in criminal proceedings, the
court may order disclosure of the privileged information when it
finds a prosecutor has a compelling need for the information and
it is not otherwise available, without incurring unreasonable
cost and delay.  The court must conduct in camera hearings
within 45 days of the filing of a petition to determine
privilege.  Any order to disclose information would not
constitute a general waiver of the document's privileged status.