National Lawyers Guild v. Hayward (Petition for Review)
The Reporters Committee and eight media organizations filed an amicus letter to the California Supreme Court in National Lawyers Guild v.…
The Reporters Committee and eight media organizations filed an amicus letter to the California Supreme Court in National Lawyers Guild v. City of Hayward. The letter urges the California Supreme Court to review a Court of Appeal decision allowing the City to charge nearly $3,000 for redacting police body-worn camera footage of a protest. The California Public Records Act allows government agencies to charge requesters for the costs of “extracting” a record, and the Court of Appeal erroneously equated redacting a video to extraction of a record. The letter argues that these prohibitive fees will greatly limit public access to body-worn camera footage and is contrary to the purposes and language of the CPRA.