by Dave Gram
VT Digger
The Vermont attorney general’s office may appeal this week’s order by a judge who said the state must pay about $66,000 to cover legal expenses of groups that sought and were first denied access to documents under Vermont’s public records law…
In her order, [Judge Mary] Teachout concluded that “EELI (Toensing’s lead client) prevailed,” adding later, “EELI’s success was not limited in some manner that undermines the salutary purpose of a fee award. EELI substantially prevailed in all three cases on important substantive issues.”
The judge added, “Even if the volume of documents ultimately disclosed to EELI was not large, if EELI had not incurred the legal fees to pursue them, records deemed in this litigation to be subject to public disclosure would not have been accessible to the public.”
