MD Public Information Act

September 22, 2023

Maryland’s “Sunshine Law”:  Cooperation, Searches, Metadata, and Costs (Part III)

This is Part III of a three-part blog comparing disclosure of public records under the Maryland PIA and civil discovery under the Maryland Rules.  The prior blogs can be found using the PIA “tag,” above.  Prior blogs addressed many similarities between the PIA and civil discovery, THE ANTIQUATED PIA EXCEPTION FOR METADATA […]
September 21, 2023

Maryland’s “Sunshine Law”:  Cooperation, Searches, Metadata, and Costs (Part II)

This is Part II of a three-part blog comparing disclosure of public records under the Maryland PIA and civil discovery under the Maryland Rules. COOPERATION IN REQUESTS FOR PUBLIC RECORDS The duty to cooperate in civil discovery is well established. Rodriguez v. Clarke, 400 Md. 39, 60 (2007); see also J. Pike […]
September 19, 2023

Maryland’s “Sunshine Law”:  Cooperation, Searches, Metadata, and Costs (Part I)

While this blog generally deals with civil discovery, “sunshine laws” that require disclosure of public records by government agencies raise many parallel, and many different, concerns.  Maryland’s analog to the federal Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) is known as the “Public Information Act,” “PIA,” or “MPIA,” and it is codified as Md. […]