Missouri on hook for legal fees for violating Sunshine Law

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is on the hook for nearly $138,000 in legal fees and expenses after an appeals court upheld a ruling that the state knowingly violated the open records law.  

KCUR-FM reports the Missouri Court of Appeals has determined that the state ran afoul of the Sunshine Law when the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services sought to charge a genealogy research group nearly $1.5 million for state birth and death records dating to 1910.

The dispute stems from open records request in early 2016 by Reclaim the Records, a California-based nonprofit whose mission is to make public records available online for genealogical and historical researchers.