Court Qualifies Award of Fees in Records Case

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A New York appeals court ruled in a case involving a nursing home seeking information on its own license revocation that attorneys fees in successful FOI request suits should be awarded only when access to information is “of clearly significant interest to the general public.” Open government advocates, including The New York Newspaper Publishers Association, expressed concern about the impact but it’s not clear whether it would extend to documents where dissemination of information to the public was the goal. (10/26/05)