Q: It’s my understanding that coroners’ reports are public documents. However, I need to know chapter and verse what parts are or are not public so I can prove my case to the coroner. Where does it say they are open? What law? What court decision?
A: As you probably know, the general rule is that any document collected, owned, or maintained by a state or local agency are public records for the purposes of the California Public Records Act (“PRA”), Cal. Gov’t Code section 6250 et seq., and must be made available for public inspection and copying unless the Act or some other law specifically says that the document can be withheld from the public.
A coroner’s report is considered to be a public document and generally must be disclosed to the public, as the California Court of Appeal noted last year in a case called Dixon v. Superior Court, 170 Cal. App. 4th 1271, 1276 (2009).
Note, however, that if there is a “concrete and definite prospect” of “criminal law enforcement” proceedings related to the death, then the report may fall within a PRA exception for law enforcement and investigatory records. It can be tough to convince agencies to disclose records that are properly characterized as law enforcement investigatory records.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to First Amendment Coalition hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation.