§ 81.007.Limited Immunity from Liability

The protection that makes the reporting duty workable.

A person who in good faith makes a report required by the reporting section is immune from civil or criminal liability resulting from the filing of that report. Reporting under this chapter is presumed to be done in good faith.

The presumption is the operative part. Without it, a reporter would carry the burden of establishing their own good faith against a defamation claim, and a mandatory duty enforced by criminal penalty would still be dangerous to obey.

With the presumption, a provider who reports a colleague is protected unless bad faith is affirmatively shown.

Subsection (c) closes the obvious abuse: the immunity does not apply to liability resulting from sexual exploitation by a mental health services provider of a patient or former patient.

A provider cannot report their own conduct and claim immunity for it. The protection covers the filing of the report and nothing else.

The same structure appears in the charitable immunity chapter's provision on disclosing sexual misconduct: good faith protected, self-disclosure of one's own conduct excluded.