In my first post for this blog, I wrote about how Utah has a good system for appealing record denials. But the system is not perfect, and you can blame it on the lawyers.

Well, kind of. Here's why.

Reporter Steve Gehrke requested some documents from the Salt Lake County Attorney's Office. Last week, he received a denial and instructions on how to appeal that denial to the Salt Lake County Council. The council will schedule an appeal hearing before it. Here's the catch.

Salt Lake County Attorney Lohra Miller is the council's lawyer. For Gehrke to win his appeal, he must persuade the council its attorney is wrong; that the council should ignore its lawyer's advice and give him the documents.

Of course, we think the county attorney is wrong, but why should the council listen to us non-lawyers when it finances people with juris doctorates? And there's no requirement for the council to seek an outside legal opinion. (If the council rejects our appeal, we could take it to the State Records Committee but that means more time and effort.)

This structural flaw in the appeal process is not unique to Salt Lake County. I had an almost identical scenario last year when I tried to obtain records from the Utah County Attorney. A similar problem exists when the state of Utah denies a records request. The Utah attorney general will represent the state in an appeal. The attorney general also is the lawyer for the State Records Committee.

But maybe the Salt Lake County Council will surprise us and decide it's getting bad legal advice. Stay tuned.

--nc

The photograph is the great Phil Hartman as the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

Labels: GRAMA, State Records Committee