A new survey conducted jointly by Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Better Government Association gave a “grade” to 50 states and the District of Columbia on how well their FOI laws are working.
Most states got Cs, Ds and Fs.
Virginia ranked fifth, with a B-.
Florida, which has long enjoyed a reputation as being one of the most open states in the country, was 19th, with a C-.
Criteria were broken into two categories – three procedural criteria and two penalty criteria.
The procedural criteria measure (1) the amount of time a public agency or department has to respond to a citizen’s request for a public document; (2) the process a citizen must go through to appeal the decision of an agency to deny the request for the public record; and (3) whether an appeal is expedited when it reaches the court system.
The penalty criteria weigh (1) whether the complaining party, upon receiving a favorable judgment in court, is awarded attorney fees and costs; and (2) whether the agency that has wrongfully withheld a record is subject to any civil or criminal punishment.
The complete results can be found online at: