Question
I requested information from The County Economic Council. They didn’t want to share information that would be of “us” to me, so they left out many pages that were the most important ones for me to see. They claimed that they showed me the final document, when in fact, at least 80- pages that were not proprietary were excluded. I have documentation. Can I sue under the Calif. Public Records Act? This represents a very big issue that is under the county’s jurisdiction. I need an attorney who isn’t going to give into the county or is under their influence.
Answer
Before suing, you might want to consider submitting a written request for access to the entire document under the California Public Records Act. A sample PRA request letter can be found on the CFAC website at the following link: https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/cpra-primer/sample-cpra-request-letter/. The benefit of submitting such a request is that the County must respond in writing and, if does not give you the entire document unredacted, must cite the specific exemptions in the PRA on which it is relying for its redactions. That will allow you and any attorney you retain to evaluate the validity (or not) of the County’s claimed exemption and any legal action.
Government Code section 6259 also allows you to sue for access by filing a verified petition for writ of mandate in the Superior Court for the County.
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.