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.
No Delaware opinions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Can a Delaware municipality wait two years to produce meeting minutes from a rezoning vote?
Partial violation. The Delaware AG ruled the City of Rehoboth Beach violated FOIA by failing to maintain and produce meeting minutes from a June 16, 2023 rezoning vote for over two years. But the AG c…
If a Delaware village has a town-meeting style government where every resident is a member, can a resident use FOIA to get communications between the council's lawyer and the small task force the lawyer was hired to advise?
The AG declined to decide. The Village of Arden withheld the communications under attorney-client privilege. The petition turned on whether every Arden resident is the law firm's client and whether th…
How specific does a Delaware agency's affidavit have to be when defending a FOIA search, and is naming the statutory exemption in a denial letter enough?
The Department of Elections's FOIA-coordinator affidavit identified the people consulted (10 Board of Elections members, 6 county directors, the State Election Commissioner, and others), explained why…
Can a Delaware journalist FOIA prison policy on punishments like 'roll the log' or 'pick up bottle caps,' or does the security exemption shield it?
No. Although DOC tried (and failed) to invoke 11 Del. C. § 4322(d) without the required Commissioner judgment, the AG found a different exemption that did apply: § 10002(o)(17), which shields response…
Can a Delaware school district refuse to give a reporter administrators' hire dates, salaries, and leave status by saying 'that's a question, not a request for records'?
Not without sworn evidence that no such record exists. Indian River School District claimed the request was an interrogatory, but the AG ruled that counsel's unsworn statements cannot meet the FOIA bu…
Does Delaware recognize a deliberative process privilege that lets DNREC withhold raw PFAS sampling data from FOIA?
No. DNREC violated FOIA by denying AP reporter Randall Chase access to raw PFAS sampling data and related internal correspondence under a deliberative process privilege theory. Delaware courts have no…
Can a Delaware agency withhold an employee settlement agreement as a 'personnel file' just because the dispute went through the Merit Employee Relations Board?
Not automatically. DNREC initially withheld a $94,066 settlement with a former Planner IV under the personnel-file exemption because the dispute came from a MERB grievance, but on a second look it agr…
Can a Delaware agency withhold all PFAS test results and internal emails about a statutorily required drinking-water survey by labeling everything a 'working draft'?
No. Delaware's working-draft exemption protects actual draft documents and emails proposing specific revisions to those drafts, but it does not cover raw test data or internal communications that aren…
If you ask one Delaware agency for crime statistics they don't have, can you complain when they tell you no, even if a different state agency has the data?
Mooted out. Amanda Fries asked DELJIS for 2020 and 2021 juvenile crime statistics. DELJIS doesn't compile that report; the Delaware State Police's State Bureau of Identification (SBI) does, for the FB…
If a Delaware city blows the 15-day FOIA deadline but eventually answers, can the AG still find a violation, or does the late response moot the petition?
The AG declared the petition moot. Wilmington had told Mr. Bittle within 15 business days that it needed more time, but it failed to give one of the statutory reasons (voluminous records, legal advice…
Can a Delaware attorney FOIA prison surveillance video and inmate disciplinary records?
No. The AG ruled DOC properly withheld correctional facility surveillance footage under the security exemption (§ 10002(l)(17)) and inmate disciplinary records under 11 Del. C. § 4322(a) (case records…
Does Delaware FOIA make my agency convert raw data from HTML to CSV when I ask for it as a database file?
No. The Delaware AG ruled that DSP did not violate FOIA when it produced 2014-2016 Uniform Crime Reporting data as HTML files rather than the CSV or database format the journalist requested. FOIA does…
Can a Delaware citizen FOIA a 1980s mayor's original candidacy filings, and does the agency have to keep records forever?
No. FOIA does not require a Delaware public body to produce records that do not exist. The Delaware Public Archives' retention schedule for candidate filings is 22 months, after which the records are …
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 '…
When a Delaware agency finally produces records after a journalist files a FOIA petition for missing the 15-business-day deadline, is the petition moot, and what about new complaints about how the agency searched?
The AG concluded the petition was moot because DOC produced the responsive records before the AG ruled. The AG did find that DOC failed to give a good-faith time estimate within fifteen business days …
Does Delaware FOIA force an agency to answer my questions or just to produce existing records?
The Delaware AG concluded that the Auditor of Accounts FOIA petition was moot. The Auditor had responded (one day late, blamed on a FOIA Coordinator transition) by sending the requested annual financi…
Does Delaware FOIA make a complaint moot if the agency provides the records after the petition is filed?
The Delaware AG concluded that the FOIA petition against the Department of Safety and Homeland Security was moot. By the time the petition reached the AG, the Department had already responded to the r…
If Delaware's Governor's office repeatedly extends a FOIA deadline and eventually produces the records, does the requester's complaint still succeed?
No, according to this opinion. The AG dismissed a bus-advocacy group's FOIA complaint against the Governor's office as moot because the office, after several consented-to extensions for legal review, …
If a Delaware city answers a FOIA request late, does the requester's complaint to the Attorney General still get decided on the merits?
No, according to this opinion. The AG dismissed a Newark resident's FOIA complaint as moot because the City eventually told him it had no records responsive to his request, even though that answer cam…
Does a FOIA complaint about a missing report end once the town sends it a day later?
Yes. The AG found a reporter's complaint over Dewey Beach's delayed agreed-upon-procedures report was moot once the town sent the completed report within 24 hours of her follow-up, even though she wan…
Does a Delaware FOIA complaint about missing insurance policy pages end once the town finally finds and sends them?
Yes. The AG found a complaint over Dewey Beach's slow production of insurance policy endorsement pages, including ones tied to military-surplus equipment storage, became moot once the town located and…
Must a Delaware prison hand over its own cumulative summary reports on contraband seizures under FOIA, even if individual incident reports are exempt?
Yes for the summaries, no for the underlying reports. The AG found Delaware's Department of Correction violated FOIA by not turning over its own summary documents on contraband seizures at James T. Va…
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 …
Does a public body violate open-meetings law if the meeting room turns out to be too small for the crowd that shows up?
It can, according to this opinion. The State Board of Education held a heavily attended meeting on a controversial school redistricting plan in a room that turned out to be too small, and the AG found…
Could a Delaware town call a last-minute 'special' meeting instead of an 'emergency' meeting to skip FOIA's notice rules before an election?
Partly. The AG found the Town of Bethel's two-day notice was valid as a special meeting because there was a genuine compelling need to appoint election officials before an upcoming vote, but the notic…
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 zoning board of adjustment refuse to let ordinary citizens speak at a quasi-judicial hearing but let one citizen argue as a party representative?
Mixed, under the law as it stood in 2004. The AG found Rehoboth Beach's Board of Adjustment could lawfully limit its quasi-judicial hearing to legal argument from the parties, but violated FOIA once i…
Can a school board discuss disagreements between its own members in a closed personnel executive session?
No, under the law as it stood in 2001. The AG found the Indian River School District violated FOIA by discussing "Boardsmanship," personal disagreements among the board's own members that led to a boa…
Can I still file a FOIA complaint about a school board meeting that happened over a year ago?
No, under the law as it stood in 2000. The AG declined to act on a complaint about a Red Clay Consolidated School District executive session held in November 1998 because it was filed more than six mo…
What happens if a town calls a special meeting on short notice without explaining why it couldn't wait seven days?
The town violated FOIA, under the law as it stood in 1997, by posting a special-meeting notice three days ahead without explaining why the usual seven-day notice couldn't be given. No remedy was order…
If a Delaware public records complaint gets the documents released after the complaint is filed, does the Attorney General still rule on whether FOIA was violated?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. Once the Wilmington Housing Authority voluntarily produced the elderly-housing records a resident had requested, the AG treated her complaint as moot and did not…
If a Delaware town council votes on something that wasn't on the meeting agenda, can it fix the problem by voting again the right way?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1995. The AG found that Georgetown's Town Council violated FOIA when it voted to evict the Chamber of Commerce from Town Hall without listing the matter on the meetin…
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…
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…
Browse Delaware opinions by topic
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.