Access with Attitude: An Advocate's Guide to Freedom of Information in Ohio

Conclusion

244 Conclusion By now you may have reached much the same conclusion that transcendental philosopher Henry David Thoreau expressed in the mid-nineteenth century: “I have not read far in the statutes of this Commonwealth. It is not profitable reading. They do not always say what is true; and they do not always mean what they say.”1 But whether you’re a reporter, a gadfly, a gumshoe, or just curious, now you’re armed. Your vote and your taxes allow your state and local officials to keep information on your behalf, but getting it can be a challenge. You may want that information because you’re civic-minded, but more likely you want it to serve your own needs that have little to do with overseeing government. In either event, you’re better equipped to get past “no” than you were before. If you’re an attorney, you may not be chasing public records for yourself, but now you know about some of the quirks and surprises that jump up when suing to gain public records for someone else. Now you have an edge. If you’re a judge, you aren’t chasing public records at all, but you may be deciding the best course to forge when deciding cases by people who are expending lots of resources to win nothing but the right to see information. Now you have some new ideas, new legal analyses that the authors hope gave you pause. ...