Annotations for Decision

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). Full Details

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 this section 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 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). Full Details

Litigation exception found in Open Records Act did not apply to disclosure of the specifics of settlement agreements made between local police department and litigants suing department, since such settlements were merely negotiated by counsel and not in closed meetings. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Gov't v. Lexington Herald-Leader Co., 941 S.W.2d 469, 1997 Ky. LEXIS 38 (Ky. 1997). Full Details

Unredacted copies of final settlement agreements which showed payments made by government in connection with lawsuits against the police department were not covered by the privacy exception contained in subdivision (1)(a) of KRS 61.878 even though two or three of the agreements contained confidentiality clauses whereby settlement recipients and their attorneys agreed not to disclose the terms of the agreements. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Gov't v. Lexington Herald-Leader Co., 941 S.W.2d 469, 1997 Ky. LEXIS 38 (Ky. 1997). Full Details

Unredacted copies of final settlement agreements which showed payments made by government in connection with lawsuits against the police department were not covered by the privacy exception contained in subdivision (1)(a) of this section even though two (2) or three (3) of the agreements contained confidentiality clauses whereby settlement recipients and their attorneys agreed not to disclose the terms of the agreements. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Gov't v. Lexington Herald-Leader Co., 941 S.W.2d 469, 1997 Ky. LEXIS 38 (Ky. 1997). Full Details