Question
What are my options for going after emails we believe were omitted from a public records request?
Answer
As a general rule, emails are treated as written documents subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (PRA). See San Lorenzo Valley Community Advocates for Responsible Education v. San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District, 139 Cal. App. 4th 1356, 1411 (2006).
If you believe that emails responsive to your request were not produced, you have two options. First, you can send another letter to the agency noting the oversight and requesting production of the emails in addition to whatever other documents were produced. It is usually a good idea in such a letter to mention the statute and cases holding that the agency will have to pay the Daily News Group’s attorneys fees if DNG has to file a lawsuit and then obtains access.
Alternatively, or if the follow up letter does not work, the PRA “‘sets forth specific procedures for seeking a judicial determination of a public agency’s obligation to disclose records in the event the agency denies a request by a member of the public.'” Id. at 1408 (quoting Filarsky v. Superior Court, 28 Cal. 4th 419, 426 (2002)). Specifically, you can file a petition in superior court demanding a copy of the emails. If the agency denies that such emails exist, but you have information that they do, your attorneys can take discovery to try to establish that they do exist (or, perhaps, that they have been deleted).
Asked & Answered posts should not be relied on as legal advice, and FAC makes no guarantees about their completeness or accuracy. All posts carry a date of publication that readers should take note of in assessing their usefulness, given that laws and interpretations of them may change over time. Posts predating Jan. 1, 2023, that discuss the California Public Records Act may contain statute numbers no longer in use. Please see this page for a table showing how the California Public Records Act has been renumbered.