Connecticut Public Records Law

= Short Description =

Who is covered?

 * The governor and legislature are covered by the public records law. Courts are excluded under a doctrine of separation of powers. Members of "advisory boards" who are not government officials are not subject to public records laws, making it easy to skirt public records laws through advisory commissions.

What is the process like?

 * Agencies have four days to respond to a request (average is 7 days). Agencies are allowed to charge a search fee, including staff time dedicated to searching for a record. Requesters have a right to ask for records in a specific format. The state has a Freedom of Information Commission that appoints an ombudsmen to individual cases/parties when agencies do not respond to citizen requests.

Most recent changes?
= Legislation =

The following are bills introduced in 2011:
 * SB 1148 - A bill to permit a civil action against a consumer reporting agency or an employer, employer's agent, representative or designee for a violation of statutory requirements concerning the request for, use of and reporting of criminal records with respect to employment decisions.
 * HB 6600 - A bill to implement the recommendations of the task force to study converting legislative documents from paper to electronic form and the task force to study the reduction of state agency paper and duplicative procedures.
 * SB 1138 - A bill to provide for a preliminary review of Freedom of Information requests made by inmates and prohibit access by inmates to the list of contributors to a candidate for election to public office.
 * HB 5994 - A bill to mandate that public agencies accept requests for public records made by electronic mail as well as by mail, facsimile or hand delivery.
 * SB 787 - A bill to reduce the number of Freedom of Information requests by inmates and save agency costs in responding to such requests by requiring such requests to be preliminarily screened to determine if they are reasonable.

= Articles, Blog Posts, etc =
 * Open Records Chaos in Connecticut - Fire Law, Aug. 11, 2011
 * FOI in Connecticut could lose credibility in new merger - Sunlight Foundation, May 27, 2011