§ 31–853. Privilege.

(a)(1) An insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document shall be privileged information and shall not be admissible as evidence in any legal action in a civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding, except as provided in subsections (b), (c), and (d) of this section and §§ 31-854 and 31-855.

(2) The privilege shall not extend to:

(A) Documents, communications, data, reports, or other information required to be collected, developed, maintained, reported, or otherwise made available to a regulatory agency under a District or federal law, rule, or order;

(B) Information obtained by observation or monitoring by any regulatory agency; or

(b) If, in connection with examinations conducted under the insurance laws, a company voluntarily submits an insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document to the Commissioner, as delegate of the Mayor, as a confidential document, the provisions of § 31-1403(f) shall not apply to the insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document so voluntarily submitted.

(c) To the extent that the Commissioner has the authority to compel the disclosure of an insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document under other provisions of applicable law, the document furnished to the 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. Any use of an insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document furnished as a result of a request by the Commissioner under a claim of authority to compel disclosure shall be limited to determining whether or not any disclosed defects in an insurer’s policies and procedures or inappropriate treatment of customers has been remedied or that an appropriate plan for their remedy is in place.

(d) The privilege shall not apply to the extent that it is expressly waived by the company that prepared, or caused to be prepared, the insurance compliance self-evaluative audit document.