Fees

A federal court awarded a California-based journalist and author nearly half a million dollars in fees, concluding two FOIA litigation battles with the FBI that lasted for more than 25 years.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ruled Thursday that the FBI must pay Seth Rosenfeld $479,459 in attorneys’ fees because the journalist “substantially prevailed” in the two lawsuits he filed against the FBI.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled yesterday that authorities cannot charge the public for redaction costs under its public records law.

The decision rejected an attempt by the City of Milwaukee Police Department to charge redaction costs for providing records in two requests filed by reporters at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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.

A Pennsylvania appellate court ruled on Tuesday that the state Department of Transportation must release records on speed enforcement devices used by state police agencies in full – without any redactions – under the state's Right-to-Know Law to an engineer whose speeding ticket sparked the requests.

The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that the Cuyahoga County Recorder’s Office must provide copies of electronic images sought under open records requests at cost – $1 per CD – rather than charging a statutory $2-per-page photocopying fee.

Penalties for missing the 20-day time limit to respond to federal Freedom of Information Act requests and appeals applies to all agencies, regardless of their internal regulations on response times, a federal district court found August 10 in Bensman v. National Park Service.

A California appeals court ruled Tuesday that state agencies can charge licensing fees to the public for access to electronic geographic information system data stored in geographical mapping programs.

An international court, charged with deciding cases in which freedom of expression violations are alleged, ruled earlier this week that attorneys should be prohibited from collecting “success fees” from unsucc

When Wisconsin investigative reporter Richard Moore requested records from the state's Department of Natural Resources last year that related to a shoreland zoning issue, he did not expect to uncover a controversy about the agency’s handling of public records fees in general.