Request By:
Mr. Alex W. Rose
Assistant Attorney General
Department of Revenue
Capitol Annex Building
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
The Honorable Mark F. Armstrong, attorney for Rental Uniform Service, Inc., has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 the denial of a request to inspect a record in the custody of the Department of Revenue. The record is described as an opinion of the legal staff of the Department of Revenue as to the validity of the Department's Sales and Use Tax Division, permit No. 57925 and Louisville Division permit No. 69676. In order for the Attorney General to give an opinion on the appeal, as required by KRS 61.880, we requested that you send us the described record for our review. You complied with our request by letter dated June 1, 1982 in which you also presented the argument that the legal opinion in question was exempt from public disclosure by the attorney-client privilege.
We have considered Mr. Armstrong's assertions that (1) the requested document is a formal legal opinion and is in the nature of an opinion of the Attorney General, and (2) the document is not exempt as the work product of an attorney because there is no such specific exemption provided by KRS 61.878.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
First, we conclude that the document in question is not of the nature of an official opinion of the Attorney General. It is an in-house memorandum from legal counsel to a client, namely, the Department of Revenue.
Since the document is an intra-office memorandum in which opinions are expressed and recommendations made it is exempt from the mandatory requirement of public disclosure by KRS 61.878(1)(h).
Records which are the work product of an attorney in the course of advising a client are not discoverable under CR 26.02(3) and are therefore exempt from public disclosure under KRS 447.154 and KRS 61.878(1)(j). [See OAG 81-291.]
It is, therefore, our opinion that you properly denied inspection of the described record under the provisions of KRS 61.870 - 61.884.
As directed by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester who has the right to challenge it in court. KRS 61.880(5).