Local Open Government Blog : Open Government Law : Foster Pepper Law Firm : Northwest, Seattle, Spokane, Portland Lawyer & Attorney

On July 20, 2010, the Ohio Supreme Court expanded access to public records formerly protected from disclosure under the “uncharged-suspect” exemption to Ohio’s Public Records Act. The court held that the exemption applies only to portions of records that, if released, could reveal a suspect’s identity. The records in question were not “inextricably intertwined” with the suspect’s identity, so the court ordered disclosure after identifying information was redacted.

The decision was not, however, unanimous. The dissent stated concern that the ruling will weaken the uncharged suspect exemption, impose an onerous burden on trial courts by requiring additional review of portions of records, and create an unworkable redaction standard that may not actually protect suspects’ identities.

How does Washington compare? Like Ohio’s Act, Washington’s Public Records Act exempts certain types of investigative, law enforcement and crime victim information from public inspection. Similarly, the Washington Supreme Court does not support a blanket investigative records exemption, finding that in some scenarios, the trial court should determine on a case-by-case basis whether nondisclosure of all or parts of a requested record is essential to effective law enforcement or for the protection of privacy rights.

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In State v. Mendez, ___ Wn. App. ___ , 2010 WL 3259347 (August 19, 2010). The Yakima Herald sought as public records the sealed attorney billing records for public defenders in two related criminal cases, State v. Sanchez and State v. Mendez. The trial court denied both requests, but suggested a motion to unseal pursuant to GR 15 in Mendez because that case is closed. (The Sanchez public records case was argued to the Washington Supreme Court on March 9, 2010.)

The Mendez court held that GR 15 and the State constitutional command that justice be administered openly and permitted the newspaper to intervene and granted the newspaper’s motion to unseal the billing records of public defenders in a closed criminal case. But in doing so, the court carefully distinguished ongoing criminal cases, in which the right to a fair trial and the right to counsel may be impacted by releasing the billing time and expense records of a criminal defendant.

In releasing the billing records, however, the Court of Appeals did affirm the trial court’s redaction of time descriptions tending to reveal communications between the defendant and his appointed counsel (attorney client privilege) and those describing discovery and contacts with witnesses, and other attorney work product materials.
 

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Update 7/5

What does this mean for other PRA cases?  If you have a case at the penalty stage, I'd probably seek a stay because unless the Court adopts the identical test,  if you do it now you'll just have to do it again later.

Original Post

The Washington State Supreme Court has withdrawn its January Opinion in the long-running Yousoufian v. Office of Ron Sims case.  In that Opinion, the Supreme Court had ruled that the $124,000 Public Records Act penalty award against King County was too small.  The Opinion adopted 16 factors trial courts should use to set penalty amounts.  For more details on the Opinion, see this MRSC article.

King County had moved to have the Opinion withdrawn after it was revealed that the Opinion author, Justice Richard Sanders, had a pending appeal in a Public Records Act case, where he was relying on his Yousoufian Opinion to argue that his judgment against the State should be increased.  In light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court holding in Caperton v. Massey that a West Virginia Supreme Court Justice's decision not to recuse himself violated due process, this result is not surprising. 

Here is an article in the Seattle Times on the Supreme Court's ruling.  Here is a post on the Supreme Court Blog about the order. 

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