8-805. Immunity of participants; nonprivileged
communications
A. Any person making a complaint, or providing information or otherwise
participating in the program authorized by this article shall be immune from any civil or
criminal liability by reason of such action, unless such person acted with malice or
unless such person has been charged with or is suspected of abusing, abandoning or
neglecting the child or children in question.
B. Except as provided in subsection C of this section, the physician-patient
privilege, husband-wife privilege, or any privilege except the attorney-client privilege,
provided for by professions such as the practice of social work or nursing covered by law
or a code of ethics regarding practitioner-client confidences, both as they relate to the
competency of the witness and to the exclusion of confidential communications, shall not
pertain in any civil or criminal litigation in which a child's neglect, dependency, abuse
or abandonment is in issue nor in any judicial proceeding resulting from a report
submitted pursuant to this article.
C. In any civil or criminal litigation in which a child's neglect, dependency,
abuse or abandonment is an issue, a clergyman or priest shall not, without his consent be
examined as a witness concerning any confession made to him in his role as a clergyman or
a priest in the course of the discipline enjoined by the church to which he belongs.
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