North Carolina Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in North Carolina, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Under the 2010 NC public-records amendments, what salary, promotion, and disciplinary-dismissal records do public employers have to keep open for inspection, and do they have to dig up information from before October 1, 2010?
Public employers must now keep open for inspection each employee's full salary and position-classification history with that employer, plus a general description of the reasons for each promotion. For…
When someone files a public-records request for the names of private equity, hedge fund, and real estate funds the NC State Treasurer has invested public money in, the management fees paid, and information about the underlying portfolio companies, which of those does the Treasurer have to disclose?
Most of it, but not portfolio-company information. The NC AG concluded that fund names, investment amounts, annual returns, and management-fee data are public records that must be released. Informatio…
Can the public get copies of private admonitions the NC Judicial Standards Commission has issued to judges, and the documents about the rule that authorizes private admonitions?
Two different answers. (1) Records about the development and adoption of the Commission's *rules*, including the rule that authorizes private admonitions, are public records under the NC Public Record…
Under North Carolina's 2001 MBE construction-contracting law, does each state agency receiving construction money have to develop its own minority-business outreach plan, or can the Department of Administration write one plan covering all of them?
Each public entity must develop its own outreach plan. The 2001 Session Laws use 'public entity' to mean every elected or appointed authority with legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administr…
Are a North Carolina legislator's emails and other written communications about redistricting public records the public can inspect, and who is the legal custodian of those records?
It depends on who the communication was with. Communications between a legislator and a legislative employee, including a staff lawyer, are confidential before enactment of a redistricting plan and be…
Are draft redistricting plans drawn by a North Carolina legislator personally, using the legislature's computer system but without staff help, public records the public can demand to see?
The statutes do not clearly answer the question. G.S. §§ 120-130, 131, and 133 protect plans drawn by legislative employees but say nothing about plans drawn by legislators themselves. Two competing c…
Does North Carolina law require a county to let the public monitor its 800 MHz radio system in real time, or to record radio traffic that the county is not already recording?
No. The Public Records Act covers records that exist; it does not force a county to create a record. If a county chooses not to record 800 MHz radio traffic, no statute requires it to start, and no st…
When a North Carolina state commission spins off a private nonprofit corporation that takes over the same economic development work using state money, is that nonprofit subject to the Public Records Act, or does its private-corporate form let it keep records confidential?
The nonprofit is still subject to the Public Records Act. Under the Wake County Hospital System case, an entity that performs public functions with public funds under significant government oversight …
Can a member of the public find out whether a specific NC public school teacher has a valid teaching license, and from which agency?
Yes from the State Board of Education or DPI; no from the local school district. The AG split the analysis by record custodian. Teacher licensure status is a public record under G.S. § 132-1 in the ab…
Is computer software developed for the State of North Carolina (like the State Title and Registration System program code) a public record that has to be turned over to anyone who requests it under the Public Records Law?
No. The AG concluded that under G.S. § 132-6.1, NC's Public Records Law distinguishes computer software from the records the software generates. The records (databases, data fields, query outputs) are…
Can a NC public hospital keep a non-medical-malpractice settlement agreement confidential, even when the agreement itself says it must stay confidential?
Almost no. G.S. § 132-1.3 makes settlement documents involving state agencies (including public hospital authorities) public records, with a narrow carve-out for medical malpractice settlements. The c…
After a tie vote in a small-town mayoral race was decided by a single provisional ballot, must the county board of elections release the provisional voter's identifying application to the media on request, or does the constitutional right to a secret ballot protect that voter's identity?
The provisional voter's identity is protected. Normally, applications to vote provisionally are public records because they are separate from the ballots and there are enough provisional voters that n…
When the North Carolina Division of Travel and Tourism gives requesting parties copies of its promotional photographs and slides, can the Division attach use restrictions, or is it required to release the images and let recipients use them however they want?
The images must be released and the Division cannot control downstream use. Photographs and slides made by the Division in the conduct of public business are public records under § 132-1(a). The Divis…
When someone asks the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles for a list of employees and former employees receiving state disability income, including their names and the dollar amount of disability income they receive, is that a public record the DMV must release, or is it protected personnel information?
It must be released. North Carolina law makes salary a public record under § 126-23. The Supreme Court has read 'salary' broadly to include retirement benefits, and the AG read it to include disabilit…
Are the water and sewer billing records of a North Carolina municipal utility public records that anyone can inspect, or are they private customer records protected from disclosure?
Public records, available to anyone. The AG concluded that under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 and § 132-6, billing records of a municipal water and sewer service (or any other municipally operated public u…
When the NC House Ethics Committee investigates sexual harassment charges against a member, can it (1) keep the investigatory reports it commissions confidential, and (2) take closed-session testimony from a 16-year-old former House page and then publish a transcript with the page's name redacted?
No to both. The AG concluded that investigatory reports the Committee receives are public records (News & Observer Publishing Co. v. Poole) and the Committee cannot withhold them. On closed-session te…
If a savings bank applies to convert from mutual to stock form and then withdraws the application, is the withdrawn application still a public record the state agency has to show to the public?
Yes, but only as long as the agency keeps it. The AG concluded that the public-information portion of a conversion application becomes a public record the moment the Savings Institutions Division (SID…
If the State of North Carolina keeps backup CDs of a commissioned sound sculpture in its building, can the public force the State to hand over copies under the public records law?
No. The AG concluded that an artist who retained federal copyright in a state-commissioned sound sculpture kept the right to control duplication, and federal copyright law preempted the state Public R…
Can a trade association get a list of which state nursing-home surveyors passed or failed the federal qualification test, or is that confidential personnel information?
The AG concluded the list is confidential personnel information that cannot be released under N.C.G.S. § 126-22. Because failure could lead to an employee being removed from the survey team, the pass/…
If the State Treasurer's Retirement and Health Benefits Division gets a request from someone other than the retirement system member, asking for information from that specific member's individual retirement account, does the Division have to turn over the records, or can it withhold them based on its internal rule that says individual retirement benefits won't be publicly disclosed?
Yes, the Division has to turn over the records. The 1979 AG concluded that individual member retirement account information is a 'public record' under G.S. 132-1, and any person may seek access under …
Are the Highway Patrol's copies of a North Carolina Uniform Traffic Ticket (the District First Sergeant's transmittal copy and the issuing officer's enforcement copy with notes) public records that any member of the public can inspect, either before or after the trial of the offense?
No on all three counts. The District First Sergeant is a temporary conduit, not a 'custodian' of public records under § 132-2, and the public can get the same information from the clerk of court or th…
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Attorney general opinions in North Carolina are written by the North Carolina 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.