Delaware Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Delaware, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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If a Delaware public body finally produces records mid-petition, is my FOIA delay complaint dead?
Yes. Once the City of Wilmington produced the narrowed records during the petition process, the journalist's FOIA delay claim was moot. Delaware FOIA petitions exist to determine whether a violation '…
Can the Delaware AG order an Auditor to produce school district audit reports that the requester believes should exist under another statute?
No. Delaware FOIA limits the AG's petition jurisdiction to deciding whether FOIA was violated. The AG cannot order the Auditor of Accounts to produce audit reports the requester believes should exist …
Can a journalist get a roster of Delaware pre-trial detainees with names, charges, ICE holds, and bond amounts under FOIA?
No. The Delaware AG ruled that the Department of Correction properly denied a journalist's FOIA request for a roster of pre-trial detainees because 11 Del. C. § 4322(a) and § 8513(d) statutorily prohi…
Can Delaware's Office of the State Bank Commissioner deny a FOIA request from an out-of-state publisher?
Yes. The AG upheld the office's denial of a FOIA request from an Illinois-based publisher, reaffirming that Delaware public bodies are only required to comply with records requests from Delaware citiz…
Are a Delaware public official's personal emails about government business subject to FOIA?
Yes, according to this opinion. The AG reversed its own 2011 position and held that emails in an official's personal account are public records under Delaware FOIA if they were required by, done at th…
Does Delaware's public records law apply to requests from people who aren't Delaware residents?
No. Delaware's AG confirmed that FOIA only obligates public bodies to fulfill records requests from Delaware citizens, so the State Treasurer's office did not violate FOIA by denying a request from an…
Is sending a Delaware FOIA response to the wrong email address a violation, even if the reply itself was on time?
Yes, but only a technical one. The AG found the Village of Arden should have used the email address tied to the original request, even though its FOIA coordinator answered within one business day, and…
Does a Delaware FOIA complaint end if the agency later hands over the records it was accused of withholding?
Yes. When the Governor's office later supplemented its response to a records request with the actual calendar, the AG treated the complaint as moot and did not decide whether the earlier response had …
If an agency takes ten months to respond to a FOIA request, does it have to prove it acted properly along the way?
Yes. The AG found DNREC violated FOIA because it could not produce any record proving it responded within 15 business days, gave a proper reason for needing more time, or kept the contact log FOIA req…
What happens if a Delaware police department is late responding to a FOIA request but then provides the records anyway?
The AG found the Wilmington Police Department violated FOIA by failing to respond within 15 business days to two records requests, but ordered no remedy because the department had since fulfilled the …
Can a state agency withhold records from someone who is actively suing a related federal agency over the same issue?
Yes, in this case. The AG upheld DNREC's denial of records to a property owner who was actively suing FEMA over a flood elevation determination, because the records related directly to that pending la…
If a Delaware agency can't find the exact document I asked for in a FOIA request, does that violate the law?
No. The AG found that Delaware's Department of Justice did not violate FOIA when it searched for, but could not locate, the specific memo a requester asked for, told him it didn't exist, and separatel…
Can a Delaware state agency withhold correspondence with a developer by calling it part of an 'investigatory file'?
No, not here. The AG found that DNREC violated FOIA by withholding correspondence between a developer and the Sussex Conservation District under the investigatory file exemption, because the review at…
How many days does a Delaware state agency have to respond to a FOIA public records request?
15 business days. The AG found that the Delaware Department of Insurance violated FOIA's public records provisions by taking longer than 15 business days to respond to a request, but ordered no furthe…
Can a Delaware city withhold police officers' names from public salary records?
No. The AG concluded that Wilmington police officers' salary and compensation records are public under Delaware's FOIA, and that the Law-Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights, which protects officers f…
Can a Delaware city retroactively justify withholding FOIA records based on things said after it already refused the request?
No, the AG found. Delaware's potential litigation exemption is judged by what a city objectively knew when it made its withholding decision, so statements and news stories from weeks after the City of…
Can a small Delaware town charge thousands of dollars in staff time before it will hand over public records?
No, the AG found. Because the Town of Bridgeville had no written FOIA fee schedule, it could only charge the actual cost of photocopying, not the $11,383 in estimated staff labor it demanded up front …
Does responding to a public records request in nine days, or telling someone information by phone instead of in writing, violate Delaware's FOIA?
No, under the law as it stood in 2006. The AG found the Town of Camden did not violate FOIA in any of six specific incidents a citizens' group complained about, including records that reportedly went …
Can a Delaware town require someone to explain why they want public records, or prove Delaware residency, before handing them over?
No to both, under the law as it stood in 2006. The AG found the Town of Townsend's public records form violated FOIA by requiring requesters to state their reason for requesting records and to prove D…
Can a Delaware citizen force a school district to create a new report instead of just handing over the underlying records?
No. The opinion found that once a school district hands over all the underlying documents responsive to a records request, Delaware's FOIA does not require it to also compile or reformat that data int…
Can a Delaware city keep executive session minutes secret when they cover a city solicitor's pay instead of a city employee's?
No, under the law as it stood in 2005. The AG found the City of Newark properly kept confidential the portion of its executive session minutes discussing the City Secretary's raise, since she is a pub…
Can a Delaware town refuse to release a lawsuit settlement agreement because the parties privately agreed to keep it confidential?
No, according to this opinion. The AG found a town violated FOIA by withholding a settlement agreement that ended a civil rights lawsuit against the town, because a private confidentiality agreement b…
Can a Delaware town raise its public-records copying fee without adopting a written fee policy first?
No, under the law as it stood in 2004. The AG found the Town of Odessa could not enforce its increase from 15 cents to $1 per page for copying public records because it never adopted a written rule se…
Can I demand 'all books, checking accounts and papers' a town has kept since a certain year under a public records request?
Mixed, under the law as it stood in 2003. The AG found a request for "all books, checking accounts and papers" a Delaware town kept since 1994 was too broad to honor, but ordered the town to release t…
Can I get copies of federal grand jury subpoenas sent to a Delaware county government through a public records request?
No, according to this opinion. The Delaware AG found that federal grand jury secrecy rules count as a statute that specifically exempts records from disclosure, so county grand jury subpoenas are not …
Can I get the name and home address of the president of a homeowners' maintenance corporation from a Delaware county?
Yes for the name and mailing address, according to this opinion, but not the home or work phone number. The AG found a maintenance corporation president has only a minimal privacy interest in the name…
Can a town raise its FOIA copying fees and cap staff time on records requests specifically because one resident keeps asking?
Mixed, under the law as it stood in 2002. The AG found South Bethany's document access itself complied with FOIA and that council members' personal notes weren't public records, but the town's resolut…
Can a Delaware government withhold documents as related to 'potential litigation' with someone else entirely?
No, according to this opinion. The AG found New Castle County could not use the requester's own threatened lawsuit over one matter to withhold unrelated correspondence with a newspaper about a complet…
Can I file a Delaware FOIA complaint if a town simply doesn't have the planning document I asked for yet?
No, according to this opinion. The Delaware AG found that a town did not violate FOIA by failing to hand over a comprehensive development plan that did not yet exist, since FOIA does not require a pub…
Does Delaware's public records law require a school district to create records it doesn't have or get records from a private contractor?
No, under the law as it stood in 2002. The AG found Cape Henlopen School District did not violate FOIA by failing to hand over a bus schedule, claim forms, or zoning-inquiry records it did not possess…
Can a Delaware city refuse to release the names and home addresses of its retired employees?
Yes, according to this opinion. The AG found the City of Dover could lawfully withhold the names and addresses of retired city employees under FOIA's privacy protections, following federal case law th…
Is a Delaware school district still in violation of FOIA if it eventually turns over records, just later than the requester wanted?
Not necessarily. The Delaware AG found no FOIA violation where a school district eventually provided everything a requester asked for, including enrollment figures, meeting minutes, and access to meet…
Can a school board require a newspaper's records request to be made in writing to its attorney, and can it discuss a controversial charter school application in closed session?
Mostly no violation, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found Red Clay's requirement that a newspaper's public records request be in writing and addressed to its counsel didn't violate FOIA, th…
Does a Delaware public records request require a school district to answer questions or compile lists that don't already exist as a document?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found that most of a resident's eleven information requests to the Colonial School District, phrased as questions rather than requests to inspect specific…
Can a school district refuse a large public records request about grant spending just because gathering all the documents would take too long?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found that once a records request specifically identifies the documents sought, like purchase orders and expense records behind a grant's computer-generat…
Does Delaware's Freedom of Information Act give records-access rights to residents of other states?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The opinion found that Delaware's FOIA text, which repeatedly used the phrase 'citizen of the State,' was unambiguous and gave inspection and copying rights only…
If a Delaware school board explains in writing why a teacher was put on leave, does it also have to hand over her personnel file to a concerned parent?
No, under the law as it stood in 1995. The AG found that Woodbridge School District had complied with FOIA when it explained in writing why a teacher had taken a leave of absence and offered to meet w…
How specific does a Delaware public records request have to be for the city to have to respond to it?
Under the law as it stood in 1995, a request must describe the documents sought specifically enough for the public body to actually locate them. A resident's request for information on the status of u…
Are professional license applications filed with a Delaware licensing board open to public inspection?
Mostly yes. The opinion found that applications filed with Delaware's Committee on Massage/Bodywork Practitioners were public records subject to inspection, except that any criminal history statements…
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Attorney general opinions in Delaware are written by the Delaware Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.