On March 3rd, 2009, Prison Legal News (PLN), a project of the non-profit Human Rights Defense Center that reports on criminal justice issues and prison and jail-related civil litigation with an emphasis on prisoners' rights, filed this lawsuit in the Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles. The plaintiff sued Los Angeles County, the Office of County Counsel, and the Sheriff’s Department under the California Public Records Act (California Government Code § 6253(a)). The plaintiff sought both declaratory and injunctive relief requiring county officials to comply with the Act. Specifically, the plaintiff alleged that, in 2007, Los Angeles County had stopped regularly releasing records related to settlements and verdicts from tort, over-detention, and civil rights claims involving both jail detainees and employees.

In response, the defendants argued first that some of the requested records may be exempt from disclosure and also that it would not be "reasonably possible" to conduct a search for the relevant requested documents. However, though the plaintiff claimed it had expressed willingness to work with the county to produce these records in a reasonable manner, the county still did not release any of the requested information to the public, thus resulting in this lawsuit. Additional background information about the case is available here and here.

The defendant filed a motion to dismiss on September 3rd, 2009, which was granted by the court (Judge Susan Bryant-Deason) on September 10th, 2009. However, because we cannot locate the associated order or opinion, we do not know the grounds for dismissal. The case is now closed.

Sarah Du - 01/18/2018


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