On September 23, 2013, the Virginia Supreme Court awarded an appeal in the matter ATI v. UVA (ATI is E&E Legal’s former name).  The Court accepted three questions for review; (1) whether the University could make citizens pay for review of documents they want to withhold, (2) what the meaning of the term “of a proprietary nature” means as it appears in the Virginia Freedom of Information Act when allowing UVA to withhold public records that contain “data and information of a proprietary nature”, and (3) whether the documents UVA withheld under the research data exemption actually met all six elements of the exclusion.  E&E Legal’s brief to the Supreme Court is due November 4th.  We have been contacted by other organizations, and it appears that there will be friend of the court briefs in support of our position.

The oral arguments have been set for the week of January 6, 2014.