Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1-140

This is the official text of Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1-140, part of Tennessee’s Code Ann — part of the compiled statutory law of Tennessee, published by the state as "Code Ann." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Immunity for actions in good faith by department personnel and immunity of certain other persons

Official statutory text

(a) The actions of the personnel of the department, or the departments of health, finance and administration, and general services, or their successors, undertaken in the performance of their duties pursuant to §§ 36-1-125 - 36-1-138 or pursuant to § 36-2-318 , or those actions of a licensed child-placing agency or licensed clinical social worker when acting pursuant to § 36-1-134 , within the scope of its authority shall be presumed to be undertaken in good faith and the personnel of these departments or licensed child-placing agencies or the licensed clinical social worker and the officers and agents of the state shall thereby be entitled to absolute immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise be incurred or imposed. The presumption shall only be overcome by clear and convincing evidence that the actions were malicious or were for personal gain. (b) The absolute immunity of subsection (a) shall extend to information provided by any of the entities, their officers, personnel or agents under subsection (a) that is obtained from another source and that is either incorrect or false. (c) No information that is released pursuant to this part concerning a biological or legal parent or guardian who voluntarily surrendered or consented to adoption of a child shall be the basis for any civil liability of the biological or legal parent or guardian. Acts 1995, ch. 532, § 1.
(a) The actions of the personnel of the department, or the departments of health, finance and administration, and general services, or their successors, undertaken in the performance of their duties pursuant to §§ 36-1-125 - 36-1-138 or pursuant to § 36-2-318 , or those actions of a licensed child-placing agency or licensed clinical social worker when acting pursuant to § 36-1-134 , within the scope of its authority shall be presumed to be undertaken in good faith and the personnel of these departments or licensed child-placing agencies or the licensed clinical social worker and the officers and agents of the state shall thereby be entitled to absolute immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise be incurred or imposed. The presumption shall only be overcome by clear and convincing evidence that the actions were malicious or were for personal gain.
(b) The absolute immunity of subsection (a) shall extend to information provided by any of the entities, their officers, personnel or agents under subsection (a) that is obtained from another source and that is either incorrect or false.
(c) No information that is released pursuant to this part concerning a biological or legal parent or guardian who voluntarily surrendered or consented to adoption of a child shall be the basis for any civil liability of the biological or legal parent or guardian.
Acts 1995, ch. 532, § 1.

Status: in_force

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.