Archived News:

Databases Created by Government Contractor Assessors are Open to Public

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals in WIREdata, Inc. v. Village of Sussex et al., decided that WIREdata had the right under Wisconsin's Open Records Law to access property assessment records in the same electronic format as they were created by the independent contractor assessors hired by the Village of Sussex and certain other municipalities.  This case is a good reminder to governmental entities and government contractors in Wisconsin about the scope of Wisconsin's Open Records Law.

Wisconsin's Open Records Law generally grants the public access to any "record," except as otherwise provided by law.  By definition, a "record" covered by the Open Records Law is something that has been created by, or is being kept by, an "authority."  An "authority" is basically defined as the State and its political subdivisions.

In addition to records that are created or kept by an authority, ' 19.36(3) of the Wisconsin Statutes provides that an "authority shall make available for inspection and copying . . . any record produced or collected under a contract entered into by the authority with a person other than an authority to the same extent as if the record were maintained by the authority."  The court in WIREdata relied on that provision to decide that WIREdata had a right to the assessment records created by the independent contractor assessors, and that the pdf versions of the data provided to WIREdata were not enough to satisfy the Open Records Law.  Instead, WIREdata had the right to get copies of the electronic copies of the databases in the same formats they were created and maintained by the contractor assessors.

This decision does not mean that every record of a government contractor is an open record.  Wisconsin courts have determined that the purpose of ' 19.36(3) is to make sure public entities don't avoid the Open Records Law by delegating the creation and custody of a record to some other entity.  In other words, records kept by the contractor in the ordinary course of its business do not become public records just because the contractor has a contract with the government.  But, those records the public entity contracts to have collected or created (like the assessment data) are public records.

The court also confirmed that it is the public entity's ultimate obligation to respond to open records requests for contractor's records under 19.36(3), and to pay any penalties associated with failing to comply with valid requests for those records.

Go to In The News

This page is intended to provide general information about various legal issues and developments.  It is not intended to be a complete list of all recent legal developments.  This page does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon in dealing with specific factual or legal matters.