Political Subdivisions Need Only Be Reasonable, Not Herculean, in Their Attempts to Locate Records to Be Produced in Response to Public Records Request

Marshall Dennehey
Contact

A relator filed a mandamus action to compel the City of Sheffield to produce documents in response to a public records request. Despite utilizing an outside IT vendor, the City was unable to locate any images of the documents on a desktop computer where the images allegedly originated. The relator argued that the City wrongly only searched one computer and did not search all electronic devices, including printers, where the images may have been located. The Ohio Supreme Court said the City’s search was enough and only needed to be reasonable. In dismissing the relator’s argument that the City had to keep searching other electronic devices in its possession, the Ohio Supreme Court said that the relator’s suggestion that the City must search every computer that could possibly harbor the missing images had “no stopping point” and was not required under Ohio law.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Marshall Dennehey | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Marshall Dennehey
Contact
more
less

Marshall Dennehey on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide