Providing highlights and insights about the PA Right to Know Law and decisions of the Office of Open Records as well as court opinions
The Delaware County Court of Common Pleas recently affirmed a Determination of the Office of Open Records (OOR) to withhold documents that the court held were subject to the attorney/client privilege and the work-product doctrine. See Cortes v. Middletown Township, et al., 110 Delaware County Reports 35 (Jan. 25, 2023).
Brief Background Facts:…
This synopsis was prepared by Pennsylvania attorney Catherine Olanich Raymond.
The OOR issued a Final Determination recently, holding that a Request seeking election-related data does not necessarily need to state a time period from which records are being requested in order for the request to be sufficiently specific under Section 703 of the RTKL. Abby …
This synopsis was prepared by Pennsylvania attorney Catherine Olanich Raymond.
On July 27, 2020, Act 77 of 2020 (“Act 77”) became law without Governor Wolf’s signature, and is codified as 71 P.S. §§ 720.301, et seq.
In a July 28, 2020 press release, Governor Wolf characterized Act 77 as clarifying “that various data and models…
Francis Pileggi, co-editor of this blog, recently accepted an offer to be the Managing Partner of the new Delaware office of the Lewis Brisbois firm, which has over 1,500 lawyers, in over 40 practice areas of the law, in over 50 offices. I’m very excited to share this exciting next chapter in my professional career.…
The OOR recently ordered the County of Delaware to produce data requested regarding a new county-wide property assessment, even though the preliminary valuations for purposes of determining the new property taxes were only a preliminary step in the process. In Marcavage v. County of Delaware, OOR Docket No.: AP 2020-0457 (March 30, 2020), the…
The United States Supreme Court, in McBurney v. Young, ruled that there is no federal constitutional right to public records, and the states have the discretion to limit access to public records to their own citizens. This decision and its impact on the right to obtain public records was explored in a recent article: Chad…
A recent article provides a how-to-guide for those who seek to obtain records pursuant to the PA Right to Know Law, with links to the OOR website. The topics include:
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has posted Cambria County Judge Krumenacker’s Opinions and Orders in the matters listed below. Click here for access:
| 2017-0050 | 06/29/2017 | DeBartola v. Cambria County District Attorney’s Office | Request sought various records relating to drug expenditures and employee information. |
| 2017-0534 | 06/22/2017 | DeBartola v. Cambria County | Request |
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The purpose of this new blog is to inform lawyers, business managers, educators, concerned citizens, journalists, and government officials about the legislation passed in 2008 by the Pennsylvania Legislature known as the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law, a/k/a PA Open Records Law. We will provide interpretations and applications of that law in court opinions and…
For anyone interested in knowing more about the PA Right to Know Law (RTK Law), the first step should be the website of the PA Office of Open Records (OOR). The website of the OOR has a wealth of information, such as links to:
(i) the text and legislative history of the PA RTK…