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Court: Legal opinions of DF&A subject to Freedom of Information Act Friday, Sep 28, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Legal opinions issued by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration are subject to disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday, overturning a circuit judge's ruling that the opinions were exempt from disclosure. In October 2005, Ryan and Co., a Dallas-based tax consulting firm, submitted a request to the DF&A for certain legal opinions it had issued in 2004. The company asked only for redacted portions of the opinions so that no taxpayer would be identified. The department rejected the request, claiming the opinions were exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act. Ryan then sued the department and Director Richard Weiss in Pulaski County Circuit Court for release of the opinions, and Circuit Judge Timothy Davis Fox ruled in favor of the DF&A. In its opinion Thursday overturning that decision, the state Supreme Court said the opinions meet the definition of "public records" under Arkansas law and are subject to inspection and copying by the public. The court rejected the DF&A's claim that redacting the requested opinions would require the creation of a new record. The FOIA states that a custodian of records does not have to comply with a request for the release of records if doing so would require the custodian to compile information or create a new record. Redacting personal information such as names, addresses and taxpayer ID numbers would not require the creation of a new record, the Supreme Court said. The court also disagreed with DF&A's argument that the opinions are exempt from the FOIA under a state statute that says the records and files of the director of the DF&A are "confidential and privileged." That statute refers to records such as tax returns which are required by state law to be filed with the director, but the department's legal opinions are not required by law to be filed with the director, the court said. "While the taxpayer information is certainly protected as already discussed above, the legal opinions in total are not protected" under the statute, Chief Justice Jim Hannah wrote. |
