COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2008
(By Delegates Amores and Stalnaker)
(Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary)
[February 5, 2003]
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
eleven, relating to providing law-enforcement employers civil
immunity for disclosure of information regarding former law-
enforcement officers; providing that information provided is
presumed to be in good faith; and providing criteria for
overcoming presumption.
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 eleven,
to read as follows:
ARTICLE 29. LAW-ENFORCEMENT TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION.
§30-29-11. 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 contained in employer
generated performance evaluation reports or termination reports to
a prospective law-enforcement employer of 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 malicious purpose of the former employee or
appointee.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.