filing open records act request

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slidelock
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Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:13 am

filing open records act request

Post by slidelock »

I have a legal question for my county I can almost guarantee they wont want to answer. It likely will come down to the amount of any judgment or settle might win as to whether they comply or not. Anybody know how that would work out? I am trying to decide whether to go find a lawyer and find out what they would charge.
Tweed Ring
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Re: filing open records act request

Post by Tweed Ring »

there's lots of case law regarding subdivisions which choose not to comply.
docachna
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Re: filing open records act request

Post by docachna »

Can you give a bit of detail about the "legal question" you have ? Counties (particularly county prosecutors) are loathe to give legal advice to anyone.
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SeanC
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Re: filing open records act request

Post by SeanC »

Not sure I understand your question. If you file a public records request (under state law) and the political subdivision fails to comply (not necessarily produce, as certain records are exempt from disclosure), you can get statutory damage--I think it's $100 per record per day, up to $10k. You can also request attorney fees, which are capped at the amount of damages recovered (so a max of $10k damages and $10k attorney fees).
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JediSkipdogg
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Re: filing open records act request

Post by JediSkipdogg »

I'm pretty fluent in public record laws. In my opinion, it's not something one should really mess with. The problem sometimes comes in what is reasonable and how long it takes to truely get to the holder of said records.
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Werz
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Re: filing open records act request

Post by Werz »

Part of the trick is to know exactly what you want, to know what it's proper name is, and to ask for it in a way which establishes that the request was received, and that a reasonable time was granted to comply. "Shotgun" requests are often vague and may include records which are exempt from disclosure, and thus, they are not particularly helpful.
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