Court of Appeal Reverses Award of Attorneys' Fees to School District Where Publisher's PRA Request Was Meritless But Not Frivolous

School districts and other public agencies are frequently the recipients of Public Records Act requests.  These requests are time consuming and subject to litigation if not properly complied with.   Cases brought to seek compliance with the PRA are frequently litigated and continue to refine the contours of the PRA statues.  A recent case discusses the award of costs and fees when a case that is brought does not compel the public agency to disclose any additional documents.

Recently, a superior court ordered a newspaper publisher to pay the attorney fees of a school district because it determined the publisher’s Public Records Act petition was frivolous.  However, on appeal, the court of appeal held that although the publisher’s petition lacked merit, it was not frivolous and therefore the publisher was not required to pay attorney fees.  (Crews v. Willows Unified School District (--- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, 217 Cal.App.4th 1368, Cal.App. 3 Dist., July 17, 2013).  Although the District complied with the PRA request, it was still subject to a lawsuit and even when the publisher did not prevail, was unable to recoup its costs of litigating the matter. 

Districts should carefully comply with PRA requests for the dual purposes of (1) providing access to public records as required by statute and in the public interest of furthering open access to government and (2) avoiding potentially costly litigation.

For more information, please see our Legal Alert and contact Meghan Covert Russell or the KMTG attorney you normally consult with.