Michigan AG’s “Unreasonably High Cost” May Be His Own

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The Michigan Attorney General’s Office sought to charge the Detroit Free Press $20 an hour to meet its request for records on the beer and wine industry. It said assembling the data would result in “unreasonably high costs,” using fee authorizing language in the state open records law. The paper disputed the charge because the assembling took only three hours. It sued, won, and is seeking legal fees. Now let’s do the public math. Cost of search and assembly: $60. Cost of reimbursing plaintiff: $30,000. (7/14/05)