COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2165
(By Delegates Amores, Stalnaker and Everson)
(Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary)
[March 2, 1998]
A BILL to amend article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
ten, relating to providing employer immunity for disclosure
of information regarding former law-enforcement officers and
providing that information provided is presumed to be in
good faith.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten,
to read as follows:
ARTICLE 29. LAW-ENFORCEMENT TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION.
§30-29-10. Employer immunity from liability; disclosure of
information regarding former law-enforcement officers.
Any sheriff, chief of police, the director or chief
executive of any agency or department employing law-enforcement officers as defined in section one of this article and the
executive director of the governor's committee on crime,
delinquency and correction or his or her designee who discloses
information about a former law-enforcement officer's job
performance to a prospective law-enforcement employer seeking
information concerning the former appointee or employee is
presumed to be acting in good faith and, unless lack of good
faith is shown by clear and convincing evidence, is immune from
civil liability for the disclosure or its consequences. For the
purpose of this section, the presumption of good faith is
rebutted upon a showing that the information disclosed by the
former employer was knowingly false or deliberately misleading
and was rendered with the malicious purpose of discrediting the
former employee or appointee.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide employer
immunity from civil liability for information disclosed regarding
former law-enforcement employees.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.