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Court Holds Communications from Consultant Not Exempt from FOIL

By Steven Silverberg and Katherine Zalantis

In a detailed analysis of New York?s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) the Appellate Division First Department held that certain communications from a consultant hired by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) were not exempt from release under FOIL as intra-agency communications. Noting that while there is generally such an exemption ?such communications lose their exemption if there is reason to believe that the consultant is communicating with the agency in its own interest or on behalf of another client whose interests might be affected by the agency action addressed by the consultant? the court held that because the consultant was also hired as a consultant by Columbia University to assist with the same project the communications sought under FOIL were subject to release under FOIL...continue to full post

Full post as published by New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog on July 28, 2008 (boomark / email).