Annotations for Statute

An agreement which represents the final settlement of a civil lawsuit whereby a governmental entity pays public funds to compensate for an injury it inflicted is a public record and is open to inspection by any person as provided in subsection (1) of KRS 61.872 and the government is without any basis upon which to claim a right of privacy and unless such documents are excluded from disclosure by one (1) or more provisions of the Open Records Act, they must be produced. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Gov't v. Lexington Herald-Leader Co., 941 S.W.2d 469, 1997 Ky. LEXIS 38 (Ky. 1997).

Commonwealth of Kentucky, Cabinet for Health and Family Services’  (Cabinet) failure to disclose the requested records constituted a “willful” violation of the Open Records Act, KRS 61.871; the Cabinet failed to make particularized analysis and instead relied on an all-encompassing policy of nondisclosure despite the purpose of the Act and despite the acknowledged applicability of KRS 620.050(12)(a) under these circumstances, and the circuit court concluded that these denials were made in “bad faith.” Commonwealth v. Lexington H-L Servs., 382 S.W.3d 875, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 216 (Ky. Ct. App. 2012).

Department of Corrections v. Courier-Journal & Louisville Times, 914 S.W.2d 349, 1996 Ky. App. LEXIS 10 (Ky. Ct. App. 1996); Triplett v. Livingston County Bd. of Educ., 967 S.W.2d 25, 1997 Ky. App. LEXIS 74 (Ky. Ct. App. 1997); Commonwealth v. Chestnut, 250 S.W.3d 655, 2008 Ky. LEXIS 116 (Ky. 2008); Cincinnati Enquirer v. City of Fort Thomas, — S.W.3d —, 2011 Ky. App. LEXIS 202 (Ky. Ct. App. 2011); Parish v. Petter, 608 S.W.3d 638, 2020 Ky. App. LEXIS 100 (Ky. Ct. App. 2020); Univ. of Ky. v. Kernel Press, Inc., 620 S.W.3d 43, 2021 Ky. LEXIS 126 (Ky. 2021);                         Courier-Journal, Inc. v. Shively Police Dep't, 2022 Ky. App. LEXIS 99 (Ky. Ct. App. Nov. 10, 2022).

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) did not bar a university from releasing to a newspaper all records sought under the Open Records Act because, while FERPA barred release of unredacted education records contained in a Title IX investigation file, not all the records sought were education records directly relating to a student.  Kernel Press, Inc. v. Univ. of Ky., 2019 Ky. App. LEXIS 92 (Ky. Ct. App. May 17, 2019, sub. op., 2019 Ky. App. Unpub. LEXIS 905 (Ky. Ct. App. May 17, 2019).

General Assembly did not intend to mandate an iron rule of non-disclosure whenever an exemption contained in the Kentucky Open Records Act applies because such a rule would run counter to the principle, fundamental in the law, that rights, even fundamental rights, may be waived, and the Act’s express policy, is the free and open examination of public records. Lawson v. Office of the AG, 415 S.W.3d 59, 2013 Ky. LEXIS 640 (Ky. 2013).

Names of donors to a public university’s foundation who had not requested anonymity were subject to the disclosure requirement of KRS 61.871, as the foundation was a public entity under KRS 61.870, and the donors had no reasonable expectation of privacy. Cape Pub'ns, Inc. v. Univ. of Louisville Found., Inc., 260 S.W.3d 818, 2008 Ky. LEXIS 176 (Ky. 2008).

Resident had standing to sue under Kentucky’s Open Records Act (KORA), KRS 61.871, 61.872, and the trial court erred when it dismissed the resident’s case for lack of standing; KORA granted the resident standing to sue for damages to which a person requesting public records may be entitled pursuant to that act. Taylor v. Barlow, 378 S.W.3d 322, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 170 (Ky. Ct. App. 2012).

Unpublished decision: Department of Revenue was required to produce for inspection redacted copies of its final rulings because the production of the material a tax attorney and tax analysts sought was required by the Open Records Act; the Department's final rulings contained information related to its reasoning and analysis with respect to its task in administration of the tax laws, and that information could be made available without jeopardizing taxpayers' privacy interests under the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights.  Fin. & Admin. Cabinet v. Sommer, 2017 Ky. App. LEXIS 9 (Ky. Ct. App. Jan. 13, 2017, sub. op., 2017 Ky. App. Unpub. LEXIS 624 (Ky. Ct. App. Jan. 13, 2017).