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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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…
How far in advance must a Delaware city council post its meeting agenda under FOIA?
At least seven days before the meeting. The AG found Wilmington's City Council violated FOIA by only posting its full agenda one day before an April 2017 meeting, even though the city argued its annua…
Is a cabinet council created by the Delaware governor's executive order a 'public body' subject to FOIA's open-meetings law?
Not automatically. The AG found the Governor's Family Services Cabinet Council fell under FOIA's 'body of one' exemption because its only members were the Governor and his own Cabinet secretaries, mak…
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 …
Can I file a new FOIA petition asking the Attorney General to reconsider a decision already issued in an earlier case?
Mostly no, according to this opinion. The ACLU of Delaware sent a follow-up letter about State Police's production of cell-site simulator records under a prior AG determination. The AG found that lett…
Can a reporter get the medical examiner's conclusion about a person's manner of death through a Delaware public records request?
No, according to this opinion. A reporter asked Delaware's Division of Forensic Science (DDFS) for the autopsy findings, and later just the medical examiner's conclusion on manner of death, in the cas…
Is a shared data-processing agency owned by two school districts subject to Delaware's public records law?
Yes, according to this opinion. The New Castle Data Service Center (DSC), a shared administrative agency owned and operated by the Colonial and Red Clay Consolidated School Districts to handle finance…
Does a nonprofit that gets most of its funding from the state count as a public body under Delaware's open meetings law?
No, according to this opinion. The Cape Henlopen Senior Center, a private nonprofit that gets more than two-thirds of its budget from state and county grants and had the Rehoboth Beach mayor and polic…
Does a government records office have to provide bulk copies of public records in the specific electronic format I request?
No, according to this opinion. A requester (Zillow) asked the Kent County Recorder of Deeds for about a year and a half of recorded document images on external media. The Recorder instead offered free…
Can I get records about individual special-education students through a Delaware public records request?
Not when disclosure could still identify individual students, according to this opinion. The AG found that Individual Educational Plans and related documents for a small group of special-education stu…
Can a state agency withhold how much money telecom companies pay into a public fund by calling that information a trade secret?
No, not here. The AG found that the amounts two telecom carriers, AT&T and Sprint, paid into Delaware's Broadband Fund were "financial" and "commercial" information but not protected trade secrets or …
Can a citizen use Delaware's FOIA to get records that a private company holds under contract with a state agency?
Not automatically. According to this opinion, a private contractor's own business records only count as FOIA "public records" if the contractor prepared them to carry out the public agency's own respo…
Can Delaware's public records law reach University of Delaware research records if state money didn't pay for the project itself?
No, the AG found. University of Delaware records are public only if they relate to the expenditure of public funds, and because no state or local funds paid for the Lewes wind turbine project itself, …
Can a Delaware police department withhold its internal operations manual and checkpoint procedures from a FOIA request by citing officer safety?
Partly, according to this opinion. A police department's checkpoint guidelines were exempt from FOIA because releasing them could expose law-enforcement tactics and endanger officers, but the index (t…
Does a Delaware town have to release a public employee's draft contract before it is finalized?
Not while it is still a genuine working draft, but according to this opinion, once a town council votes at a public meeting to approve the contract, even subject to further legal review, it becomes a …
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 resident use FOIA to see a code enforcement complaint file about their own property, even after the case is closed with no charges filed?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found that a Town of Elsmere Code Enforcement complaint file, opened over an unregistered vehicle, was protected from disclosure under FOIA's investigator…
Does a Delaware school district violate FOIA by not producing an advisory committee's report if the committee was never actually formed?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found the Brandywine School District did not violate FOIA by failing to provide the names of a District Advisory Committee or its report and recommendatio…
Can a Delaware county be forced under FOIA to produce a subcontractor's billing records that the county itself never received?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found Sussex County did not violate FOIA by failing to produce billing records from a paving subcontractor, because the subcontractor's bills were folded …
Can a Delaware resident use FOIA to get copies of parking tickets the town issued to other people?
Partly. Under the law as it stood in 1997, the AG found the Town of Laurel had not violated FOIA because it made available nearly everything the resident requested over several years, including his ow…
Can a Delaware resident force a county zoning office to produce a list under FOIA if the office never created or kept that list?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Office did not violate FOIA by failing to produce a list of nonconforming structures and uses, because th…
Can Delaware towns refuse to release a list of employee names and salaries by claiming privacy or administrative burden?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG ordered eleven Delaware municipalities to produce, within ten days of a proper request, a list pairing each employee's name with their salary, rejecting b…
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…
If someone sues in court over a Delaware records request, does the Attorney General still rule on the same FOIA complaint?
No, under the law as it stood in 1995. The AG found that once a complainant filed a Superior Court lawsuit that included a FOIA count over the same records dispute, her separate petition asking the At…
Could Delaware withhold apprentices' names and wages from a public records request because the paperwork was stamped confidential?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1995. The AG advised Delaware's Division of Employment and Training not to release apprenticeship agreements bearing a confidentiality stamp, reasoning that the stamp…
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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.