Random Politics & Religion #00

If you are into hippie lawyers that is.

If you are into hippie lawyers that is.

He's into "hippy" lawyers. Know what I mean? Eh? "Know what I mean," he asked him knowingly.

Got an Outrageous Public Records Story? Send Your Nominations for “The Foilies”

Fighting for government records is sometimes like:

… a game of Battleship, but where you have to go to court to force your opponent to tell you whether you even grazed his aircraft carrier.

… finding yourself at the doors of the Forty Thieves’ cave, except that you have to rap out “Open Sesame” in Morse code with your forehead just to get a peek at the treasure.

… ordering a book from an online store then having to wait 10-30 days just to hear back that the store can neither confirm nor deny whether your item is in stock.

… running the hurdles at the Olympics, but with Droid Kafka and his bureaucrobot army laying down new stretches of barricades every time you think you’re about to cross the finish line.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/got-outrageous-public-records-story-send-your-nominations-foilies

I don't know about you, but I never had any issues with public records in Texas. I have to deal with it all of the time too.

One phone call to the Texas Comptroller's office or the county's courthouse and I pretty much have your life story that the state is legally bound to give. Mind you, I wouldn't get any of the good stuff (SSN, income, etc.) but I can find out where you were born, when, which hospital, who the doctor was, if your parents ever paid the bill to the hospital, and so on. I can even get information on if you are registered with the state and if you have the right to transact businesses in Texas, among other things. All you really need is a name and where the person lives.

You should feel free to name your own Foilies categories. For example, if the Department of Defense claimed a national security exemption in response to your FOIA request for lunch menus, you might suggest a category for “America’s Most Dangerous Cafeteria.” But we also have several categories already in mind, such as:

Absurdly Over-Redacted Documents

Egregious Copying Fees

Extraordinarily Long Wait for Records

Silly Legal Arguments in Public Records Lawsuits

Wrongest-Headed Anti-transparency Legislation

Gratuitous Glomars

Have you been asking for lawsuit documents, police documents, or FOIA requests?

Egregious Copying Fees

It helps out a lot if you talk to the clerk respectfully and answer with "sir" or "ma'am" often.

In the state of CT if you want a copy of the past 4 years of your drivers record, you can't get any further then that for some reason in CT it is 25 dollars for 1 piece of printed paper.

Particularly if you match the genuflectory word with the correct gender. Not so much if you don't.

And damnit Chrome, genuflectory is a word. Go look it up.

You people think that's annoying.

Try dealing with medical records.

"Well, yes, your release is technically HIPAA-compliant but we require you go above and beyond this so kiss off."

*arrg*

Medical record clerks are born bitchy. I swear.

Lawsuit documents, yes, although not very often thankfully. Got to know what to report on returns, especially when it involves the Texas SOS or Tax Court.

Probably once, twice a year. Longest I waited was by the end of the workday.

It helps out a lot if you talk to the clerk respectfully and answer with "sir" or "ma'am" often.

Officials in Ferguson, Missouri, are charging nearly 10 times the cost of some of their own employees' salaries before they will agree to turn over files under public records laws about the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The city has demanded high fees to produce copies of records that, under Missouri law, it could give away free if it determined the material was in the public's interest to see. Instead, in some cases, the city has demanded high fees with little explanation or cost breakdown.

In one case, it billed The Associated Press $135 an hour — for nearly a day's work — merely to retrieve a handful of email accounts since the shooting. That fee compares with an entry-level, hourly salary of $13.90 in the city clerk's office, and it didn't include costs to review the emails or release them.

...

The Washington Post was told it would need to pay $200 at minimum for its requests, including city officials' emails since Aug. 9 discussing Brown's shooting, citizen complaints against Ferguson officers and Wilson's personnel file. The website Buzzfeed requested in part emails and memos among city officials about Ferguson's traffic-citation policies and changes to local elections, but was told it would cost unspecified thousands of dollars to fulfill.

Inquiries about Ferguson's public records requests were referred to the city's attorney, Stephanie Karr, who declined to respond to repeated interview requests from the AP since earlier this month. Through a spokesman late Monday, Karr said Missouri law can require fees but she didn't address why charges specific to the AP's request were nearly tenfold the lowest salary in the city clerk's office. Karr said searching emails for key words constitutes "extra computer programming" that can bring added costs.

You people think that's annoying.

Try dealing with medical records.

"Well, yes, your release is technically HIPAA-compliant but we require you go above and beyond this so kiss off."

*arrg*

Medical record clerks are born bitchy. I swear.

Yeah, it also depends on what case you are asking about and how annoyed officials are. There have been a lot of problems with not fulfilling requests or charging absurd fees in the last few years.

One example

article

Every county in Texas has an online registry for appraisal and property tax values. If you knew my name, you can look up the Bexar County Tax office and find out the value of my home and how much property taxes I paid last year. That's one of the joys of living in Texas, and nobody gives a ***how much their neighbors' house is appraised at (it's never right).

I can attest to this, try working with them.

They go out of their way to not know things, I swear.

*calls to get something refaxed beacuse pages were missing*

"Yes, I was wondering if you could please refax these records, they didn't come through completely."

"We never got your request."

"You already sent them to me..."

"I've got no record of receiving that request."

"YOUR NAME IS ON THE COVER SHEET OF THE PARTIAL TRANSMISSION."

"Oh. That. Okay, I'll do what I can."

*headdesk*

Not sure about online but FL you could access that information, as well. It's considered pulic information, iirc.

Boliga.dk (requires understanding danish or using dictionary) you can see every property purchased in Denmark, many previous sales, property value compared to property in same area, etc. This is not a state run website, those you can get more precise information from.

Welcome to the 1980-90s?

The medical field's numerous advancements in terms of treatment rarely reflects in the office technology.

There are health systems out there that use electronic record systems, but they have their own host of hoops through which you need to jump that are equally irritating, just in different ways.

But many individual doctors' offices demand faxes or -- worse still -- won't take ANYTHING electronically and demand a mailed request with a wet-signed signature. Electronic authorizations are no good to them! Because electronic could be fake, but a wet signature they didn't see signed couldn't possibly be fake!

HIPAA, while good for some things, can make working with medical records very, very irritating. And as stated, some places are so deathly afraid of HIPAA violations that they go so far above and beyond the requirements it's painful.

Obama unveils new foreign policy of "Strategic Patience".

One generally calls for patience AFTER a plan of action has been implemented. Having patience before you do anything isn't really patience, it's procrastination.

What a joke.

Obama unveils new foreign policy of "Strategic Patience".

One generally calls for patience AFTER a plan of action has been implemented. Having patience before you do anything isn't really patience, it's procrastination.

What a joke.

The medical field's numerous advancements in terms of treatment rarely reflects in the office technology.

There are health systems out there that use electronic record systems, but they have their own host of hoops through which you need to jump that are equally irritating, just in different ways.

But many individual doctors' offices demand faxes or -- worse still -- won't take ANYTHING electronically and demand a mailed request with a wet-signed signature. Electronic authorizations are no good to them! Because electronic could be fake, but a wet signature they didn't see signed couldn't possibly be fake!