A. Except as provided in Sections 2 and 3 of this act, an insurance compliance self-evaluative audit is privileged information and is not discoverable, or admissible as evidence in any legal action in any civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding. The privilege created herein is a matter of substantive law of this state and is not merely a procedural matter governing civil or criminal procedures in the courts of this state.
B. If any company, person, or entity performs or directs the performance of an insurance compliance audit, an officer, employee or agent involved with the insurance audit, or any consultant who is hired for the purpose of performing the insurance compliance audit, may not be examined in any civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding as to the insurance compliance audit or any insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document, as defined in this section. This section does not apply if the privilege set forth in subsection A of this section is determined under Section 2 or 3 of this act not to apply.
C. A company may voluntarily submit, in connection with examinations conducted under this act, an insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document to the Insurance Commissioner, or designee, as a confidential document without waiving the privilege set forth in this section to which the company would otherwise be entitled; provided, however, that the provisions of the Oklahoma Insurance Code permitting the Commissioner to make confidential documents public and grant access to documents to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shall not apply to the insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document. Any such report furnished to the Insurance Commissioner shall not be provided to any other persons or entities and shall be accorded the same confidentiality and other protections as provided above for voluntarily submitted documents.
D. A company's insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document submitted to the Commissioner shall remain subject to all applicable statutory or common law privileges including, but not limited to, the work product doctrine, attorney-client privilege, or the subsequent remedial measures exclusion.
E. Any compliance self-evaluative audit document so submitted and in the possession of the Commissioner shall remain the property of the company and shall not be subject to any disclosure or production under the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
F. Disclosure of an insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document to a governmental agency, whether voluntary or pursuant to compulsion of law, shall not constitute a waiver of the privilege set forth in subsection A of this section with respect to any other persons or any other governmental agencies.
Added by Laws 2012, c. 257, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2012.