(a) For purposes of this section, “confidential information” shall mean all of the following:
Terms Used In Alabama Code 27-36A-18
Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
Testify: Answer questions in court.
(1) A memorandum in support of an opinion submitted under Section 27-36A-4 and any other documents, materials, and other information, including, but not limited to, all working papers, and copies thereof, created, produced, or obtained by or disclosed to the commissioner or any other person in connection with such memorandum.(2) All documents, materials, and other information, including, but not limited to, all working papers, and copies thereof, created, produced, or obtained by or disclosed to the commissioner or any other person in the course of an examination made under subsection (f) of Section 27-36A-15; provided, however, that if an examination report or other material prepared in connection with an examination made under Chapter 2 is not held as private and confidential information under Section 27-2-24, an examination report or other material prepared in connection with an examination made under subsection (f) of Section 27-36A-15 shall not be “confidential information” to the same extent as if such examination report or other material had been prepared under Chapter 2.(3) Any reports, documents, materials, and other information developed by a company in support of, or in connection with, an annual certification by the company under subdivision (2) of subsection (b) of Section 27-36A-16 evaluating the effectiveness of the company’s internal controls with respect to a principle-based valuation and any other documents, materials, and other information, including, but not limited to, all working papers, and copies thereof, created, produced, or obtained by or disclosed to the commissioner or any other person in connection with such reports, documents, materials, and other information.(4) Any principle-based valuation report developed under subdivision (3) of subsection (b) of Section 27-36A-16 and any other documents, materials, and other information, including, but not limited to, all working papers, and copies thereof, created, produced, or obtained by or disclosed to the commissioner or any other person in connection with such report.(5) Any documents, materials, data, and other information submitted by a company under Section 27-36A-17, collectively “experience data,” and any other documents, materials, data, and other information, including, but not limited to, all working papers, and copies thereof, created or produced in connection with such experience data, in each case that includes any potentially company-identifying or personally identifiable information, that is provided to or obtained by the commissioner, together with any “experience data,” the “experience materials,” and any other documents, materials, data, and other information, including, but not limited to, all working papers, and copies thereof, created, produced, or obtained by or disclosed to the commissioner or any other person in connection with such experience materials.(b) Privilege for, and confidentiality of, confidential information.
(1) Except as provided in this section, a company’s confidential information is confidential by law and privileged, shall not be subject to any open records, freedom of information, sunshine or other public record disclosure laws, and shall not be subject to subpoena, and shall not be subject to discovery or admissible in evidence in any private civil action. However, the commissioner is authorized to use the confidential information in the furtherance of any regulatory or legal action brought against the company as a part of the commissioner’s official duties.(2) Neither the commissioner nor any person who received confidential information while acting under the authority of the commissioner shall be permitted or required to testify in any private civil action concerning any confidential information.(3) In order to assist in the performance of the commissioner’s duties, the commissioner may share confidential information (i) with other state, federal, and international regulatory agencies and with the NAIC and its affiliates and subsidiaries and (ii) in the case of confidential information specified in subdivisions (1) and (4) of subsection (a) of Section 27-36A-18 only, with the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline or its successor upon request stating that the confidential information is required for the purpose of professional disciplinary proceedings and with state, federal, and international law enforcement officials; in the case of (i) and (ii), provided that the recipient agrees, and has the legal authority to agree, to maintain the confidentiality and privileged status of the documents, materials, data, and other information in the same manner and to the same extent as required for the commissioner.(4) The commissioner may receive documents, materials, data, and other information, including otherwise confidential and privileged documents, materials, data, or information, from the NAIC and its affiliates and subsidiaries, from regulatory or law enforcement officials of other foreign or domestic jurisdictions, and from the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline or its successor and shall maintain as confidential and privileged any document, material, data, or other information received with notice or the understanding that it is confidential or privileged under the laws of the jurisdiction that is the source of the document, material, or other information.(5) The commissioner may enter into agreements governing sharing and use of information consistent with this subsection.(6) No waiver of any applicable privilege or claim of confidentiality in the confidential information shall occur as a result of disclosure to the commissioner under this section or as a result of sharing as authorized in subdivision (3).(7) A privilege established under the law of any state or jurisdiction that is substantially similar to the privilege established under this subsection shall be available and enforced in any proceeding in, and in any court of, this state.(8) In this section, the terms “regulatory agency,” “law enforcement agency,” and the “NAIC” include, but are not limited to, their employees, agents, consultants, and contractors.(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), any confidential information specified in subdivisions (1) and (4) of subsection (a):
(1) May be subject to subpoena for the purpose of defending an action seeking damages from the appointed actuary submitting the related memorandum in support of an opinion submitted under Section 27-36A-4 or principle-based valuation report developed under subdivision (3) of subsection (b) of Section 27-36A-16 by reason of an action required by this chapter or by regulations promulgated hereunder.(2) May otherwise be released by the commissioner with the written consent of the company.(3) Once any portion of a memorandum in support of an opinion submitted under Section 27-36A-4 or a principle-based valuation report developed under subdivision (3) of subsection (b) of Section 27-36A-16 is expressly cited by the company in its marketing or is publicly volunteered to or before a governmental agency other than a state insurance department or is released by the company to the news media, all portions of such memorandum or report shall no longer be confidential.
