{"id":526,"date":"2015-06-11T14:25:55","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T14:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/law\/?page_id=526"},"modified":"2022-03-31T14:38:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T14:38:21","slug":"virginia-foia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/law\/virginia-foia\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia FOIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia law (pdf)<\/a> <\/strong>—\u00a0Chapter 37 of Title 2.2 — “The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government…\u00a0The provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities and afford every opportunity to citizens to witness the operations of government. Any exemption from public access to records or meetings shall be narrowly construed…”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Committee<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is a semi-official group that gives advisory opinions about compliance with the FOIA laws. Strong advocates for freedom of information are in the minority. Eight of the 12 council members are judges or attorneys; three are reporters or former editors, and one is a librarian.<\/p>\n

2021 revision to Virginia FOIA law<\/a> <\/strong>— HR 2004, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act; law-enforcement criminal incident information; criminal investigative files, introduced by Chris Hurst, adds criminal investigative files, defined in the bill, relating to a criminal investigation or proceeding that is not ongoing, also defined in the bill, to the types of law-enforcement and criminal records required to be released in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.\u00a0 Under (previous) current<\/del> law, the release of criminal investigative files (was) is<\/del> discretionary. (There are certain exceptions). As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council.<\/p>\n

2022 reversion of the revision<\/a> <\/strong>–\u00a0 According to the Roanoke Times: “The original law in question, which has only been in effect since July, was … a way to guarantee family members could get access to these files in cases where their loved ones were victims of crimes. The impetus for that legislation came from the spouse of a woman killed in the 2019 mass shooting inside a Virginia Beach municipal building, who wanted more leverage for holding police accountable in an investigation he found unsatisfactory.” But that access was closed off in\u00a0 2022.\u00a0 Indeed, many of the FOIA reforms of recent years are being reversed, according to an op-ed in the Virginia Mercury<\/a>.\u00a0 And Gov. Youngkin is opposed to citizen access to government documents<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Proposed improvements<\/a>:\u00a0 One proposal to make FOIA access easier and cheaper did not pass.\u00a0 “To reduce…\u00a0 prohibitively expensive FOIA fees while seeking access to government records, Del. Danica Roem has introduced legislation<\/a> requiring public bodies in Virginia to fulfill records requests for free as long as they take no more than two hours of staff time. For more complex requests that take longer, public bodies could only charge the hourly rate of the lowest-paid employee working on the request or $33 an hour, whichever is lower.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s a consensus that the current FOIA fee structure is not working,\u201d Roem said.<\/p>\n

Recent articles about the Virginia FOIA laws: \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n