(a) Subject to § 62-1-116, all statements, records, schedules, working papers and memoranda incident to or in the course of rendering services to a client, made by a licensee or a partner, shareholder, officer, director, member, manager or employee of a licensee, except the reports submitted by the licensee to the client and except for records that are part of the client’s records, shall be and remain the property of the licensee in the absence of an express agreement between the licensee and the client to the contrary. No such statement, record, schedule, working paper or memorandum shall be sold, transferred or bequeathed without the consent of the client or the client’s personal representative or assignee to anyone other than one (1) or more surviving partners, stockholders, members or new partners, new stockholders or new members of the licensee, or any combined or merged firm or successor in interest to the licensee. Nothing in this section should be construed as prohibiting any temporary transfer of working papers or other material necessary in the course of carrying out peer reviews or as otherwise interfering with the disclosure of information pursuant to § 62-1-116.
Terms Used In Tennessee Code 62-1-115
Client: means a person or entity that agrees to receive any professional service from a licensee. See Tennessee Code 62-1-103
Personal representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
(b) A licensee shall furnish to a client or former client, upon request and reasonable notice:
(1) A copy of the licensee’s working papers, to the extent that the working papers include records that would ordinarily constitute part of the client’s records and are not otherwise available to the client; and(2) Any accounting or other records belonging to or obtained from or on behalf of the client that the licensee removed from the client’s premises or received for the client’s account. The licensee may make and retain copies of the documents of the client when they form the basis for work done by the licensee.(c) Nothing in this section shall require a licensee to keep any working papers beyond the period prescribed in any other applicable statute.
