Module 4: Appeals

• Home
• Module 1: General Provisions
  • Section 1.1: Legislative intent
  • Section 1.2: Defintions
  • Section 1.3: Security measures
  • Section 1.4: Disclosure of records
• Module 2: Access to Records
  • Section 2.1: Records requests
  • Section 2.2: Right to inspect records
  • Section 2.3: Access to private, controlled, and protected records
  • Section 2.4: Fees
  • Section 2.5: Denials
  • Section 2.6: Sharing records
  • Section 2.7: Subpoenas
• Module 3: Classification
  • Section 3.1: Records that must be disclosed
  • Section 3.2: Private records
  • Section 3.3: Controlled records
  • Section 3.4: Protected records
  • Section 3.5: Designation and classification
  • Section 3.6: Segregation of records
  • Section 3.7: Confidentiality claims
  • Section 3.8: Records made public after 75 years
• Module 4: Appeals
  • Section 4.1: Appeal to head of governmental entity
  • Section 4.2: Evidentiary standards
  • Section 4.3: Option for appealing denial
  • Section 4.4: Appeals to the records committee
  • Section 4.5: Judicial review
• Module 5: Political Subdivisions, the Judiciary, and the Legislature
• Module 6: Other provisions in GRAMA
• Download GRAMA law
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Section 4.2 Evidentiary standards for release of certain enforcement and litigation records

The weighing provision is found in several provisions of GRAMA, including the intent language and in the appeals process. Recent changes to GRAMA have clarified the weighing provision within the statute. Prior to 2012, the weighing provision stated “the interests favoring access outweighs the interest favoring restriction of access.” The updated weighing provision reads, “the interests favoring access are greater than or equal to the interest favoring restriction of access.” (Section 63G-2-201(5)(b))

In instances where the weighing provision is invoked, the requirement is that the benefit of disclosure is equal to or greater than the interests favoring restriction. The exceptions to this process are records found in Subsection 406. As noted in this provision, the records listed within are subject to disclosure by a governmental entity’s chief administrative officer, the state records committee, or by court order if the conditions of GRAMA’s weighing provision are satisfied and “if the person or party seeking disclosure of the record has established, by a preponderance of evidence,” to the governmental entity, that the public interest in providing access is, in fact, equal to or greater than the conditions favoring restriction of access.

Under this section of GRAMA, and only for the records listed below, the law now places the burden of providing sufficient evidence favoring disclosure of a record on the person or party requesting disclosure of the record.

Records covered by Section 63G-2-406:

Records maintained for civil, criminal, or administrative enforcement purposes or audit purposes, for discipline, licensing, certification, or registration purposes	63G-2-305(9)
Records that would jeopardize the life or safety of an individual	63G-2-305(10)
Records that are subject to the attorney client privilege	63G-2-305(16)
Records prepared for or by an attorney, consultant, surety, indemnitor, insurer, employee, or agent of a governmental entity… in anticipation of, litigation, judicial, …or administrative proceeding.	63G-2-305(17)
Records revealing a governmental entity’s strategy about: collective bargaining, imminent or pending litigation;	63G-2-305)(22)
Records of investigations of loss occurrences and analyses of loss occurrences …covered by Risk Management Fund, Employers’ Reinsurance Fund, Uninsured Employers’ Fund;	63G-2-305)(23)
Settlement negotiations but not including final settlements or empirical data	63G-2-305)(32)

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