Attorney fees

Rhode Island's governor signed into law yesterday what open records advocates have called the first major revisions in 14 years to its Access to Public Records Act -- changes that will both make more records available and give requestors more rights under the act.

An Oklahoma appeals court on Friday affirmed a lower court’s decision to grant the media limited access to state agency records regarding foster parents in 14 counties.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) must provide names, birth dates and addresses of foster parents -- otherwise confidential information -- to the World Publishing Company and KOKI Fox 23 News for the sole purpose of determining whether foster parents are convicted felons.

A Florida appeals court ruled today that a county could not avoid paying attorney's fees to a successful records requester who sued for access merely by demonstrating that it did not delay in contacting her to acknowledge her request.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal in Florida awarded Susan Hewlings attorney's fees after she successfully petitioned a lower court to order Orange County, Fla., to release records pertaining to a dangerous dog investigation of her pet.

The U.S. District Court in Seattle dismissed a lawsuit against a website that profiles and rates lawyers, doctors and dentists across the country under the Washington anti-SLAPP statute.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that with respect to agency records related to lead poisoning, only portions that do not have “personal identifying information” can be released under the Ohio Public Records Act.

A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. ruled that a journalist who sued the CIA under the federal Freedom of Information Act to release certain John F. Kennedy assassination records was not entitled to attorney’s fees.

The Iowa Supreme Court recently clarified the state’s open records statute by ruling that a government agency must prove it acted in “good faith” in withholding documents if it wants to not be liable for paying attorneys fees of people who successfully challenge freedom of information decisions.

The city of Riverdale had claimed that a state district court erred in requiring it to pay defendants’ attorneys fees because that court never explicitly said the municipality did not act in “good faith.”

The appellate division of the Superior Court of New Jersey awarded attorney's fees to a records-access plaintiff Monday in Smith v. Hudson County Register even though he was able to access and copy the records he sought.

A California judge ordered Dole Food Co. Inc. to pay about $200,000 in court costs and attorney’s fees to two documentary filmmakers who it had sued over a documentary about the company's practices. Dole previously voluntarily dropped its defamation lawsuit against the filmmakers, who, Dole alleged, implied the company had caused the deaths of Nicaraguan farm workers.

Plaintiffs are not retroactively entitled to attorney’s fees in Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed before the Open Government Act was enacted 2 1/2 years ago, a federal appellate court ruled this week.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday in favor of two government agencies that were sued before President George W. Bush signed the Open Government Act into law on Dec. 31, 2007.