By Andrew Maloney
Law Bulletin staff writer
Law Bulletin staff writer
When it comes to providing records, government agencies have flexibility to determine the fees they’ll charge curious citizens or journalists for producing paper copies.
But that’s not the case when the records are in an electronic format, an appeals panel ruled earlier this week.
In an opinion authored by Justice Robert D. McLaren, a unanimous 2nd District Appellate Court ruled Monday that a county assessor could charge no more than the cost of the compact disc the requested records were copied to.
The decision affirmed an earlier ruling by 17th Circuit Judge J. Edward Prochaska.
Rather than charging thousands of dollars pursuant to language in Section 9-20 of the Property Tax Code that allows the office to ask a “reasonable fee” for records, the three-judge panel said the office must abide by the Freedom of Information Act.
