Sign up for the Open Government eNewsletter
We warmly welcome your thoughts on og-blog and especially welcome your emails with suggested postings and links to interesting stories and court cases. If you have something to say about open government in Washington State, sending it to og-blog is probably the best way to get it out. Don’t hesitate to contact us at greg@overstreet-law.com.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Mason County Must Pay $145,000 in Public Records Case

This story in The Olympian describes a recent court ruling against Mason County for not providing public records. The requestor, Harold Carey, made public records requests by email. The County doesn't like Carey and put his email address on its spam list and then claimed it never "received" his records requests.

The judge assessed a (first-ever, to our knowledge) $100 per day penalty against the County. When the other penalties, costs, and attorney's fees are added up, Mason County will end up paying Carey about $145,000.

NOTE: Allied Law Group represented Carey in the case. Allied attorney Chris Roslaniec is quoted extensively in the story.