A. A court or administrative hearing official with competent jurisdiction may require disclosure of a portion of an audit report in a civil or administrative proceeding if the court or administrative hearing official determines after an in camera review consistent with the appropriate rules of procedure that any of the following applies:

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 49-1405

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
  • Audit report: means an audit report prescribed by section 49-1402. See Arizona Laws 49-1401
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Environmental law: means a federal, state or local law, rule, regulation or ordinance, or a permit issued under a federal, state or local law, rule, regulation or ordinance, relating to protection of the environment. See Arizona Laws 49-1401
  • 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, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215

1. The privilege is asserted for a fraudulent purpose.

2. The portion of the audit report is not subject to the privilege under section 49-1406.

3. The portion of the audit report shows evidence of noncompliance with an environmental law and appropriate efforts to achieve compliance with the law were not promptly initiated and pursued with reasonable diligence after the discovery of the noncompliance.

B. A party seeking disclosure under this section has the burden of proving that subsection A of this section applies.

C. Notwithstanding any other law, a disclosure decision of an administrative hearing official under subsection A of this section is directly appealable to a court of competent jurisdiction without disclosure of the audit report to any person unless so ordered by the court.

D. A person claiming the privilege to avoid the requested disclosure of materials is subject to sanctions as prescribed by the Arizona rules of civil procedure or to a fine not to exceed ten thousand dollars if the court finds, consistent with fundamental due process, that the person intentionally or knowingly claimed the privilege for nonprivileged materials as prescribed by section 49-1406.

E. A court determination under this section is subject to interlocutory appeal to an appropriate appellate court.