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Colorado Supreme Court Affirms a Litigant’s Right To Use CORA To Obtain Public Records, but Two Justices Object

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  • Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition

    The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition is a nonpartisan alliance of groups, news organizations and individuals dedicated to ensuring the transparency of state and local governments in Colorado by promoting freedom of the press, open courts and open access to government records and meetings.

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People who sue state and local government entities are still entitled to get public records from those entities by using the Colorado Open Records Act, a majority of the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday.

“We hold that a litigant may obtain records under CORA even if those records are relevant to pending litigation and the litigant has propounded no document requests under the Rules of Civil Procedure,” Justice William Hood wrote for the court, affirming a Court of Appeals opinion.

The underlying case concerns the recording of a 2020 Archuleta County Commission meeting requested by Pagosa Springs attorney Matt Roane, who had sued the board for allegedly violating the Colorado Open Meetings Law.