Can a bank hide their internal testing results from me in a lawsuit?

Under the Fair Housing Act, certain internal audits can be protected from being used as evidence in a lawsuit. This is known as 'privilege,' which is a legal rule that allows certain information to be kept secret even during a legal dispute [cite:us-title42-fair-housing-sec36141]. A report or result of a 'self-test' (an internal check to see if the bank is following the law) is considered privileged if the bank "conducts, or authorizes an independent third party to conduct, a self-test... in order to determine the level or effectiveness of compliance" and "has identified any possible violation... and has taken, or is taking, appropriate corrective action" [cite:us-title42-fair-housing-sec36141]. This means if your mortgage lender ran these tests to check their own compliance and they fixed the errors they found, the law says those specific results "may not be obtained or used by any applicant... in any proceeding or civil action" [cite:us-title42-fair-housing-sec36141]. Similarly, under the Consumer Credit Protection Act, a creditor can protect these results if they use the tests to ensure they are following credit laws and have corrected any issues found [cite:us-title15-consumer-credit-sec1691c1]. However, this protection is not absolute. The bank cannot use these reports as a 'defense' to argue they didn't discriminate; if they try to use the report to defend themselves, they lose the right to keep it secret [cite:us-title15-consumer-credit-sec1691c1]. Additionally, if you are in court, you can challenge their claim that the documents are secret. You can "seek a determination of the existence and application of that privilege" through a court or an administrative proceeding [cite:us-title42-fair-housing-sec36141]. It is uncertain if the specific 'compliance report' you requested qualifies as a 'self-test' under these specific regulations, as the law distinguishes between general business records and specific compliance self-tests.