(a) Immunity from process. The provision for the payment of benefits under this part pursuant to a court decree or property settlement shall not be construed to be a waiver of the sovereign immunity of the Railroad Retirement Board as an agency of the U.S. Government. The Board may not be joined in a suit for divorce, dissolution, annulment or legal separation, or otherwise subjected to the jurisdiction of any state court. Subpoenas, notices of joinder, interrogatories, orders for production of documents, and like state process issued in connection with a suit for divorce, dissolution, annulment or legal separation will be treated as requests for disclosure of information under this section.

(b) Request for information. A response to a request for information to be used in connection with a suit for divorce, dissolution, annulment or legal separation may be made by the General Counsel or his or her designee, by the Director of Retirement Benefits, or by a contact representative of the Board's field service.

(c) Information available. In the absence of a signed authorization from the employee, a spouse or former spouse who is a party to a suit for divorce, dissolution, annulment or legal separation, or his or her legal representative, may be furnished the amount of benefits the employee is currently receiving. If the employee is not currently entitled to benefits, the Board may furnish the amount of any estimated benefit to which the employee would be entitled if he or she were of retirement age at the time of the request, as reflected by the records of the Board, to the extent it is possible for the Board to compute such amount. The Board shall not be required to furnish the present value of future benefits, the amount of benefits payable at a future date, or any other computations based on statistics or procedures not maintained by the Board in the normal course of administration of the Act.

(d) Certification. A letter or statement prepared by a Board official in the regular course of duty from the official records of the Board, which refers to the authority of this section and bears his or her signature, shall be a sufficient response for purposes of discharging the responsibilities of the Board under this section. A certification in accordance with this section may be considered a public document for purposes of admissibility as evidence of present or potential benefits under the Act for use in a divorce, dissolution, annulment or legal separation proceeding.

[51 FR 12845, Apr. 16, 1986, as amended at 73 FR 47046, Aug. 13, 2008]