A court has held that public governmental bodies cannot use a provision outlining fees for electronically maintained records to assess the cost of attorney-review time as “staff time” to people seeking records through the Sunshine Law.

Tagged with: Elad Gross Gov. Mike Parson Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Sunshine Law

A Missouri appeals court is considering the case of a St. Louis attorney who unsuccessfully sued Gov. Mike Parson after Parson’s office denied his records requests regarding former Gov. Eric Greitens’ administration. On April 22, Elad Gross argued in part ...

Tagged with: Elad Gross Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Sunshine Law

A Missouri judge has ruled that a state agency purposely violated open records law when it tried to charge a genealogical research group nearly $1.5 million for birth and death records then completely rejected the group’s request. Cole County Circuit ...

Tagged with: Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia S. Joyce Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Missouri open records case Missouri Sunshine Law Reclaim the Records Sunshine Law

A judge ruled March 23 that Clay County had no authority to charge The Kansas City Star $4,200 for copies of its outside attorney’s billing statements. Nonetheless, The Star can’t recover the costs of the litigation. The suit came after ...

Tagged with: Spencer Fane Sunshine Law The Kansas City Star

A Lee’s Summit woman who sued the City of Raytown for violating the Sunshine Law has nearly doubled her recovery after a judge awarded $41,000 in attorneys’ fees to her for prevailing in an appeal brought by the city. In ...

Tagged with: Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Paula Wyrick Raytown Sunshine Law The Gorny Law Firm

A judgment in a Jefferson County Sunshine Law case has resulted in a partial reversal from a Missouri appeals court, which ruled that a requester is entitled to fees to defend himself in a declaratory-judgment action. In the same Feb. ...

Tagged with: Byrnes Mill Craig Limesand declaratory-judgment action Judge Joseph A. Rathert Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Sunshine Law

The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled fully in favor of a Mexico attorney who brought a Sunshine lawsuit against the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of St. Louis in the midst of a hotly contested 2016 primary election. ...

Tagged with: absentee ballot applications Board of Election Commissioners for the City of St. Louis David Roland Freedom Center of Missouri Missouri Supreme Court Sunshine Law

Award winners, unexpected departures, lawyers running into trouble and a legal battle involving the Sunshine Law drew the most attention from readers of Missouri Lawyers Media on molawyersmedia.com in 2019. Here are the 10 most-viewed stories on our website in ...

Tagged with: Chelsea Merta Greensfelder Hemker & Gale In-House Counsel Awards Judge Matt J. Whitworth Kimberly J. Norwood Michael Barrett Sebrina Barrett Stacey Rosa Hancock Stange Law Firm Sunshine Law The Missouri Bar Tim Thornton Up & Coming Awards

Where a city clerk challenged trial court orders addressing her failure to disclose records under the state’s sunshine law and imposing a civil penalty and attorneys’ fees to the opposing party, substantial evidence supported the finding that the clerk’s refusal ...

Tagged with: Attorney's fees Sunshine Law

Where the family of a deceased patrolman, who was shot at his home, sought records of the investigation that were retained by the state highway patrol, arguing that the state’s sunshine law governed the status of the records, the trial ...

Tagged with: FOIA Sunshine Law “Agency Records”

A Missouri appeals court has upheld a $42,550 judgment against the city of Raytown for violating the Sunshine Law. On Nov. 12, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District ruled in favor of Paula Wyrick, a ...

Tagged with: Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Paula Wyrick Raytown Sunshine Law