Despite a strong public records law, Louisiana has long suffered from a deep-seeded resistance among local and state government officials when it comes to handing over certain documents to the media and public; change, however, is coming.
The spark for that change came in July, when the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled on a public records case against the New Orleans Police Department resulting in a decision calling for a sizable increase in the amount of attorney’s fees awarded to the plaintiffs of winning lawsuits against government entities in public records access cases. In its ruling, the court called for raising the previous awards rate of $500 in attorney’s fees/costs up to $17,344.58, plus an additional $3,000 in attorney’s fees for appeals.
In the case against the NOPD — Brown v. Serpas — the department, after issuing “initial” police reports, refused additional records requests calling for the release of “supplemental” reports. After the Fourth Circuit ordered the requested files be released by the department to the plaintiff, a request was made by the NOPD to have the case heard by the state Supreme Court. It was denied. An additional ruling was then made by the trial court judge raising the attorney’s fees to be paid by the department, which was upheld and expanded upon in the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in July.
“This means that it’s now easier for private citizens and members of the media to go to court to get access to public records,” says media law attorney Mary Ellen Roy — a Lafayette native who’s now a partner with the Phelps Dunbar law firm out of New Orleans.
Roy agrees that bringing more sunshine to local governments statewide has been a long fought battle. Roy, however, says the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in Brown v. Serpas could very well prove a game-changer.
Roy continues:
I think their is a problem in Louisiana with government agencies not producing records in a timely manner. Sometimes it’s that they don’t want to be bothered. And sometimes it’s because they don’t want to produce embarrassing information. It’s also a lack of understanding of our public records law.
This should be a signal to local governments in Louisiana that they should be willing to produce public records when they’re supposed to; otherwise they’ll end up paying out a lot more in fees than they once did. Decisions like this, I think, are bringing the focus on how strong Louisiana’s Public Records Act really is, and eventually it will lead to more sunshine in government here.
For more on this ruling from the Fourth Circuit, click here.