Judge says state agency can’t charge newspapers legal review fees | 406 Politics

The determination came just after a lawsuit stemming from a request for community info designed previous year by a reporter for The Billings Gazette, which is component of Lee Enterprises.

The reporter questioned for documents from the PSC, which oversees utilities in the state. Three months right after the request, the agency explained to the reporter it had located just about 25,000 responsive files and it would need a pre-payment of $31,000 to carry out a legal assessment just before it could disclose something. 

Lee Enterprises owns the Gazette, Missoulian, Helena Impartial Report, Montana Conventional in Butte and Ravalli Republic.

The newspaper organization sued the PSC objecting to the charging of authorized service fees. In subsequent record requests, the Gazette reporter was also charged a $240 fee to hold records so they wouldn’t be deleted though the request was processed and quoted a further $870 to critique extra files.

In court docket filings and arguments, the newspaper company mentioned a lawful assessment accomplished by a government agency was not a good charge that could be billed under point out law. Montana does allow for charging charges to address the precise cost of manufacturing documents, but the newspapers argued that state businesses presently utilized lawyers and if agencies select to perform lawful reviews, that was their very own load.

David McCumber, area information director for Lee Enterprises’ news organizations in the western United States, said Friday: “The court docket agreed with Lee Montana Newspapers that condition agencies’ charging onerous service fees for legal overview of general public documents is not supported by our Structure, and that the proper to accessibility community data really should not be conditional on an capability to pay these kinds of service fees.

“This is a substantial victory for transparency in federal government and for the public’s ideal to know.”

The PSC argued in courtroom it was important to critique files prior to releasing them publicly. The company did not return an emailed ask for for remark late Friday.

The state Constitution suggests Montanans have the right to analyze documents and observe deliberations of condition govt, besides when privacy requires outweigh the public’s suitable to know. In 2015, legislators handed a regulation stating companies could cost a payment to fill a public details request and restricted that charge to the “actual charges immediately incident to satisfying the request” including “the time needed to acquire community facts.”

In courtroom, Mike Meloy, the lawyer symbolizing the newspapers, argued that by charging such a high lawful charge, the PSC was placing in put barriers to accessing paperwork that need to be accessible to the public.

“According to Lee Enterprises … the charges have a chilling influence on the public’s suitable to know mainly because their appropriate to entry general public files should really not be conditioned on their means to pay out. The court agrees,” Helena Decide Mike Menahan wrote in his Monday buy.

The PSC had argued the authorized evaluation was an “actual value immediately incident to fulfilling the request” and that the company experienced to expend serious methods by paying out someone to do the assessment. But Menahan said that expense was currently section of present staff’s scope of obligations.

Menahan continued that the PSC had a duty to fill information requests and the lawful staff’s salary is not dependent on which job they undertake for the company.

“Regardless how inconvenient the PSC may well locate general public records requests, they are no much less a section of the agency’s duties than a ratemaking continuing,” Menahan wrote.

Menahan also rejected a PSC argument that the price tag of the authorized evaluation fell less than the provision an company can demand for the “time essential to obtain public information and facts.”

“Gathering general public details pursuant to a ask for is for the advantage of the requester. Lawful assessment to stop disclosing public details is for the reward of the person whose information and facts is secured the place the company wishes to stay away from violating privacy rights,” Menahan wrote. “ … The agency may well not shift its burden in pinpointing and shielding non-public facts to a get together requesting general public information.”

During a court listening to, a lawyer for the PSC also argued lawful charges enable the company to negotiate with requesters to slim their queries.

While Menahan stated companies have a reputable curiosity in decreasing the burden of broad lookups, “there is a issue right here no matter if the PSC is employing the menace of prohibitive authorized charges as leverage for negotiating a narrower community facts request.”

As an case in point, Menahan said while the Gazette reporter requested for “all journey invoices, expenditure reports and reimbursement for personal cost for the PSC and Department of General public Regulation staff members,” the PSC did a search of emails working with the time period “expense reviews,” which created a lot of paperwork unrelated to what the reporter asked for. That is for the reason that the PSC routinely procedures regulated services provider price experiences.

“This is not an difficulty where the requester have to slim its ask for, but fairly the company should refine its research techniques,” Menahan wrote.

Menahan explained the PSC’s interpretation of the legislation meant “the proper to community facts may perhaps only be obtainable to these who can afford to pay for to shell out for it and could be more limited to (the) sum a occasion might be prepared to spend.”

Menahan ongoing that an agency can negotiate if it thinks a ask for is much more comprehensive than supposed to slender what’s being asked for, but “it might not negotiate how a lot data a party could obtain primarily based on the sum the bash is inclined to spend.”

The newspapers had also asked for the judge to block the charging of hold notice fees, but Menahan found that to be aspect of the precise price tag of filling a request and claimed could nevertheless be charged.