Legal & Financial Records

Legal & Financial Records: what the decisions show

This topic covers requests for records about public money and legal work, including settlement agreements and payment records, contracts and amendments with financial terms, legal invoices and outside counsel lists, budgets and audits, and records held by private contractors. Common disputes involve claims of attorney-client privilege, work product, trade secrets, personal privacy, preliminary drafts, or security.

In these decisions, the Public Access Counselor generally required disclosure of settlement agreements, financial terms showing expenditure of public funds, and non-exempt portions of invoices and budgets. Privilege claims were rejected where communications involved third parties, were factual status updates, or covered only general information about counsel. Withholding was upheld in limited cases, such as reports withheld as protected material, facility plans raising security concerns, and certain audit component data.

At a glance: 29 documents from 2012 to 2026(12 binding opinions, 17 determination letters). Outcome: 23 found a violation (in whole or part), 4 found none. Most often cited alongside: 7(1)(m) (Attorney/auditor communications and litigation-preparation materials) (9); 7(1)(c) (Personal privacy) (6); 7(1)(g) (Trade secrets and confidential commercial/financial information) (5); 7(1)(b) (Private information) (4); 7(1)(f) (Preliminary drafts, notes, and deliberative materials) (3).

Recurring issues

• Whether emails or lists involving attorneys are protected by attorney-client privilege or work product when they involve third parties, contain only factual updates, or list only general counsel information. (A former official's correspondence with a contractor forwarded to an attorney, Attorneys' emails with factual updates to clients, Emails between a township and its legal counsel)
• Whether settlement agreements, settlement payment records, and the nature of claims behind payments of public funds must be disclosed. (A settlement agreement in an employment discrimination lawsuit, Unredacted settlement agreements with former employees, Records of a payment to an alderman and a settlement agreement)
• Whether financial terms in contracts, amendments, invoices, and budgets can be withheld as trade secrets, burdensome requests, or privileged billing records. (Financial terms of wastewater facility contracts and invoices, A contract amendment with a capitation rate, Financial terms of a lottery marketing contract)
• Whether budget documents shared at public meetings and business records held by private vendors or related entities remain subject to disclosure. (A budget comparison document presented to a board, Prescription drug order records held by a contractor, Financial records of a university homecoming dance)

Practical points

• Settlement agreements entered into on behalf of a public body are public records subject only to redaction of exempt information.
• Legal invoices should not be withheld in full when they contain non-exempt billing rates, time spent, and general service descriptions.
• Financial terms showing the expenditure of public funds in contracts and budgets were generally ordered disclosed.
• Records about public business held by a private contractor or manager may still need to be obtained and provided in response to a request.

Summary drafted from the linked decisions and checked against them; read the decisions themselves before relying on it. Not legal advice.