Florida Lawyers Not Happy About Email Address As Public Records

Gathered in a gray Miami conference room, a handful of lawyers sitting in front of laptops fumed about being betrayed.

The Florida Bar had sold them out -- hawking their e-mail addresses to third parties who filled their inboxes with unsolicited marketing posts they consider spam. At the Bar's midyear meeting, they debated what could be done.

"The Bar has taken the position that these are public records," said Ury Fischer, a Lott & Friedland shareholder in Coral Gables who has written The Bar repeatedly about the issue. An intellectual property lawyer with a degree in engineering, Fischer wrote The Bar last month to complain about what in his view was an invitation for abuse by marketers.

Read more at Law.com

Public Records Persistence Nets Seattle Man $1 Million Settlement

f you go back 10 years, you see how little Armen Yousoufian was asking for: some papers. He wanted to make sure that King County officials were being honest about their deal-making for a new "$300 million" Seattle football stadium (the true price tag ended up closer to $1 billion with interest and other taxpayer costs). Yousoufian, a hotel owner in the University District, was worried about the impact of a hotel-motel tax to fund the stadium for billionaire Paul Allen. So he made a public records request to see internal documents and splash a bit of sunshine into the county's back rooms.

How does this lead to $1 million? Find out at the Seattle Weekly.

Pennsylvania Court Says Autopsy Records are Public

In a significant public records victory for two state newspapers, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that autopsy records should be available to the public.

Reversing a lower court decision, the high court found that autopsy reports are indeed official records or papers subject to disclosure, though trial courts still have judicial discretion over the material in some cases.

The Morning Call of Allentown and The Express-Times of Easton both sued Lehigh County coroner Scott Grim after he refused to disclose the autopsy reports for a slain Easton police officer, whose death was ruled a homicide, according to court records.

Read more at RCFP.org.

Openness a Matter of Attitude, Not Just Law

President Barack Obama quickly got about the business of "change" last week, including telling officials he wanted a change in attitude when it comes to open government

Obama instructed federal agencies to be more responsive to the public when it comes to the Freedom of Information Act..

"In the face of doubt, openness prevails," Obama said in a memo. "The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of government officials."

Read more at the Clarion Ledger.

Find Sellers in Public Records

Some of the best deals to be had for the buyer of apartment building can be had by ignoring real estate listings and going directly to the source. However, locating and making contact with apartment building owners actually takes some work. The work is not hard or time-consuming if you know where and how to find the information.

In every U.S. municipality you will find a tax assessor’s office. In the tax assessor’s office you will find a list called the tax roll which itemizes every real estate property in that municipality. These are public records, so don’t worry about breaking the law or invading people’s privacy. These records identify the mailing address of the property owner, his or her name, the name of the lender and description of the real estate along with an assessed value.

Read more at BiggerPockets.com.

Find Public Records online at PublicRecordsWire.com

Suggested Changes to Washington Public Records Act

Sen. Darlene Fairley says she wants to end the state's Sunshine Committee, dedicated to reviewing what information the government can keep secret, because the results weren't worth the effort.

The committee, created in 2007, has recommended changes to 12 exemptions to the Public Records Act, which has been changed to keep more than 300 kinds of documents out of public view.

"We're spending, by my count, 700 hours of staff time … it added up to almost $100,000," said Fairley, a Lake Forest Park Democrat. "You're not giving me one public-disclosure exemption that you can say, 'Get rid of this.' … Come on, folks. We're not here to waste money. We're here to do something."

Read more at The Olympian.

County Council Takes Action on Public Records Policy

On Monday, the City Council passed a resolution establishing a written public records policy for the city.

“We needed one so that everyone would know what we require,” said City Clerk Lisa Hanks. “The resolution was because we don’t currently have a written policy.”

Early last year, Mayor Tim Kant verbally changed the existing written policy following newspaper articles describing the difficulty and high cost of obtaining some city and police department records.

Read the rest of the story at BaldwinCountyNOW.com

Defendant's Effort to Alter Court Date Leads to Jail

Nathan Devine had gotten nabbed and was looking to buy some time.

After being ticketed for reckless driving in February, he needed to raise money for fines and attend traffic school before his court date, his attorney said. But rather than ask the judge or a lawyer to change the court date, as required, Devine, of Manassas Park, thought of an easier way: He could have a friend who worked in the courthouse change it for him.

Devine -- along with his friend, Maria Merlos, a former Prince William County General District Court clerk's office employee -- was nabbed again.

Find out what happens in the Washington Post.

Judge OKs Legal Settlement for MO Governor's E-mails

A judge approved a legal settlement Monday that requires outgoing Gov. Matt Blunt to give thousands of e-mails to investigators but leaves unresolved the question of whether Blunt’s office violated public records laws.

A bipartisan pair of court-appointed assistant attorneys general said they believe Blunt’s office broke Missouri law by deleting e-mails that should have been saved as public records.

“Clearly, based upon the evidence that was presented, there were violations” of the document-retention and public-records laws, one of those attorneys, former Democratic Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell, said after a court hearing.

Read more at The Joplin Globe.