Delaware Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Delaware, with full citations and the original source on every page.
No Delaware opinions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
When a Delaware municipality holds a 'special meeting' less than seven days after deciding to schedule it, what does the agenda have to say about why notice came late?
It must explain why seven days' notice could not be given. The Village of Arden's Advisory Committee scheduled a February 13, 2024 special meeting on January 31. The notice and agenda were posted on F…
Can someone connected to a Delaware criminal case use FOIA to get state-police policy manuals and warrant records about that case?
No. Erin Frederick, who had a connection to a 2023 bank-robbery investigation in which her Dodge Durango was towed, asked DSP for ethics manuals, warrant procedures, ALPR policies, body-cam policies, …
Can a Delaware reporter use FOIA to get a list of police calls for service to a specific address?
No. The AG concluded DSP could withhold a five-year list of calls for service to a private Wilmington address, because every call to a residence initiates a police investigation and the resulting reco…
If a former Delaware police academy cadet asks for body-cam footage and his evaluations from the academy, can the city refuse by saying he's just trying to set up a lawsuit?
Not without proof. Joshua Carter attended the Dover Municipal Police Academy from October to November 2023 and FOIA'd body-cam footage, training videos, evaluations, and correspondence with Dewey Beac…
Can a Delaware journalist FOIA prison policy on punishments like 'roll the log' or 'pick up bottle caps,' or does the security exemption shield it?
No. Although DOC tried (and failed) to invoke 11 Del. C. § 4322(d) without the required Commissioner judgment, the AG found a different exemption that did apply: § 10002(o)(17), which shields response…
Can a Delaware city use a vague 'matters discussed in executive session' agenda item to vote on hiring a new city solicitor with no public discussion?
No. Rehoboth Beach violated Delaware's open-meeting law twice: by voting on a new city solicitor without putting that decision on the agenda in 'plain and comprehensible' language, and by discussing t…
Can a Delaware criminal defendant who says he was exonerated FOIA the dash and body camera footage from his own arrest cases after they close?
No. The AG held that the investigatory-files exemption in 29 Del. C. § 10002(o)(3) is not limited to pending investigations and continues to apply after a case is closed, so DSP did not violate FOIA b…
Can a competing port operator block public records about a Delaware port deal by sending a litigation-hold letter and then suing later?
The litigation hold combined with related EAB appeals was enough for DSPC to invoke the pending and potential litigation exemptions for almost everything Holt asked for. But DSPC failed to support its…
Does a small Delaware town's museum review committee have to follow open-meetings rules?
Yes. The AG ruled the Town of Leipsic's Museum Review Committee, comprising the Mayor, Acting Council Secretary, and a Town resident, was a public body that violated FOIA when it met on November 6, 20…
Can a company use Delaware FOIA to pull records from a state agency while it has a pending appeal against that same agency, or is FOIA off-limits as a discovery shortcut?
DNREC did not violate FOIA. Holt's law firm represents an appellant in a pending Environmental Appeals Board appeal challenging DNREC's subaqueous-lands permit for the Diamond State Port Corporation. …
If I file 18 FOIA requests at once, does the Delaware agency have to send 18 separate responses?
No. The AG ruled the City of Seaford did not violate FOIA when it responded to 18 of Crystal Long's FOIA requests in a single letter with an aggregated cost estimate. FOIA permits a public body to com…
Can a Delaware school district charge $780 to search for emails about a manga library and refuse to open its book-review committee meetings?
Caesar Rodney School District lost on the fee estimate. The District wanted to bill $93 to $140 an hour for administrators to search their own emails, but FOIA requires the lowest-paid employee capabl…
Can a Delaware journalist get a list of every certified police officer's name, salary, and race?
No. The AG ruled DSP did not violate FOIA when it denied a journalist's seven-part request for a roster of all certified Delaware officers and their salary, rank, race, sex, age, and resumes. The secu…
Does a city committee picking a buyer for surplus property have to keep minutes under Delaware's open meetings law?
Yes. The AG ruled the City of Dover's Old Post Office review committee violated FOIA by failing to post an agenda and keep minutes for its August 29, 2023 meeting, and ordered the committee to reconst…
Can a Delaware town council ban rebuttals during public comment, and is it enough to list executive-session reasons by statute subsection?
The Town Council of Ellendale did not violate FOIA. A public comment period that allows two minutes per speaker and disallows rebuttals still gives the public a meaningful opportunity to engage. FOIA …
Can a Delaware city charge for staff time to identify FOIA-responsive records, including supervisor email searches?
No. The City of Wilmington did not violate FOIA when it charged Jamila Davey a $145 cost estimate (three hours of staff time) to process four outstanding FOIA requests about the Rodney Reservoir. Sect…
Can someone who lives outside Delaware use Delaware FOIA to get records from a Delaware state agency?
No. Delaware FOIA only requires Delaware agencies to respond to requests from Delaware citizens. Ian Riden, a non-Delaware resident, sent six FOIA requests to the Delaware Health Information Network a…
Can a Delaware journalist FOIA a state employee's attendance, performance, and discipline records, and how generic can the agency's denial affidavit be?
It depends on the type of record. The opinion holds that attendance and leave records with generic descriptors like 'sick' or 'vacation' are not exempt and must be disclosed (with specific medical det…
Can a Delaware reporter FOIA the police interview transcripts of teens arrested for car theft to learn about their motives?
No. Delaware FOIA categorically exempts 'investigatory files compiled for civil or criminal law-enforcement purposes' (29 Del. C. § 10002(o)(3)). Police interview transcripts of arrested teens are exa…
Can a Delaware school district hide the appointment of an acting high school principal inside a generic 'personnel agenda' and refuse to tell the public the names or positions involved?
No. The Indian River Board's June 26 and August 16, 2023 agendas listed only 'personnel' for the executive session and 'personnel agenda' / 'personnel addendum' for the open-session vote. That gave no…
Can a Louisiana doctor get a Delaware zoo's necropsy report on a pudu (small deer) that died at the Brandywine Zoo?
No. Delaware FOIA only guarantees access to citizens of Delaware (Op. 16-IB20). Dr. Heiligman, a Louisiana resident, asked DNREC for a necropsy report on Haechan, a pudu (small South American deer) th…
If a pro se plaintiff sues Wilmington over policing tactics and quotes an ACLU report in the complaint, can the City refuse to give the ACLU records about those tactics?
Yes. The ACLU of Delaware filed a 20-part FOIA seeking Operation Safe Streets and Governor's Task Force records. A week before the request, a pro se federal civil rights plaintiff had sued the City ov…
Must a Delaware municipality post meeting minutes online, and can the AG review the merits of a council's vote?
No. The City of Delaware City did not violate FOIA by failing to post meeting minutes on its website; § 10004(f) does not require online posting. The AG also cannot review the petition's other claims …
Can a Delaware agency keep asking for 15 more business days every time my FOIA request is voluminous, instead of giving me a real estimate?
No. The Department of Health and Social Services repeatedly told reporter Meredith Newman it needed another 15 business days, then another, then another. The AG ruled that 29 Del. C. § 10003(h) requir…
Does Delaware FOIA make a city compile a list of properties whose water has been shut off, or only hand over a list it already keeps?
Dover did not violate FOIA. FOIA only requires public bodies to give access to records they actually keep. The City does not maintain a list of properties whose water has been shut off, and FOIA does …
If a Delaware journalist sends a FOIA request to the wrong agency, does that agency have to forward it to the right one, or can it just deny the request?
DNREC didn't violate FOIA by denying records about the Port of Wilmington bidding because DNREC isn't the custodian of those records, the Diamond State Port Corporation is. Under Delaware administrati…
Can a Delaware school district refuse to give a reporter administrators' hire dates, salaries, and leave status by saying 'that's a question, not a request for records'?
Not without sworn evidence that no such record exists. Indian River School District claimed the request was an interrogatory, but the AG ruled that counsel's unsworn statements cannot meet the FOIA bu…
If three neighboring Delaware villages hold a joint meeting to vote on a transportation plan at one village's town hall, is that a FOIA violation if the host hall is not in two of the villages?
No. The Villages of Arden, Ardentown, and Ardencroft scheduled June 26, 2023 meetings at Gild Hall in Arden to vote on a joint transportation plan. The AG ruled FOIA permits a special meeting to be he…
Can a Delaware town require me to use its specific FOIA form before answering my records request?
No. The AG ruled the Town of Ellendale violated FOIA by refusing to process Tamara Skis's email and portal requests for meeting minutes and a decorum policy unless she resubmitted on the Town's specif…
When a Delaware public body holds an executive session, can people who are not board members attend, and how specific does the executive session agenda have to be?
The Diamond State Port Corporation kept two grounds on its revised executive session agenda (legal-advice strategy and exempted-document content) and that was specific enough. But the Board violated F…
Can a Delaware city refuse to release public-records data that overlaps with a pending lawsuit?
Yes. The AG ruled the City of Wilmington did not violate FOIA by denying access to monthly vehicle booting and towing statistics under 29 Del. C. § 10002(o)(9), the pending-litigation exemption, where…
Does Delaware FOIA force a public body to mail or email me copies of records, or can the agency just say 'come in and inspect them'?
The agency does not have to send you copies. Delaware FOIA requires public bodies to make records available for inspection and copying during business hours, but 29 Del. C. § 10003(a) does not obligat…
Can a Delaware voter use FOIA to get poll book certification forms and voting machine certificates after an election?
No. The AG ruled poll book certifications and voting machine certificates are 'voting materials' that 15 Del. C. § 4980 requires to be stored undisturbed and locked for 22 months after the election, w…
Can a Delaware school board hold an executive session without saying what it is about, then come back and vote on a 'monthly personnel report' that quietly includes the superintendent?
No. FOIA requires the agenda to state the purpose of an executive session, not just label it 'Executive Session.' The Delmar Board also violated FOIA by reordering its agenda mid-meeting without telli…
Can a law firm representing audit targets in pending litigation use FOIA to obtain Delaware unclaimed property audit-assignment records?
No. The Delaware Department of Finance properly denied a Reed Smith partner's FOIA request for records about the Department's compliance with the 50% cap on audit assignments to any single contract au…
If a Delaware school board agenda just says 'executive session' and 'personnel report,' is that enough notice when the board uses the meeting to retire and replace the superintendent?
No. The Delmar School District Board of Education accepted the superintendent's retirement, placed her on administrative leave, and appointed an interim, all at the December 13, 2022 meeting. The agen…
Does a Delaware city have to post a separate online notice for a special-use permit hearing, or is the regular meeting agenda enough?
The agenda is enough. Delaware City posted notice of its February 27, 2023 Mayor and Council meeting online with an agenda showing a 6:00 p.m. public hearing on the Marina Village special-use permit. …
Can a Delaware town council reach consensus on public business through emails between three of four members?
Two violations. The Town of Ellendale violated FOIA (1) by failing to show that an agenda for the January 30, 2023 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting was properly posted, and (2) by Council use of…
Can a Delaware city council go into executive session and pick a replacement for a vacant council seat by secret written ballot, then return to open session for a unanimous public vote?
The Wilmington City Council Committee of the Whole violated FOIA. At its November 28, 2022 and February 1, 2023 meetings to fill vacant At-Large and First District Council seats, the Committee intervi…
Can a Delaware board legally hold a virtual meeting where the public can only listen by phone?
Yes. The AG ruled the Delaware Board of Elections did not violate FOIA when its January 9, 2023 virtual meeting was held by phone only. Section 10006A requires only that the public be able to monitor …
Can a Delaware state retiree get the State's Medicfill contract through FOIA, or can the State withhold it because RiseDelaware sued over the Medicare Advantage switch?
The State Employee Benefits Committee released the Medicfill contract in redacted form. Steven LePage, a retiree, said the redactions blocked him from understanding his benefits. The AG ruled the reco…
Are the contracts of the Trustees of the New Castle Common public records under Delaware FOIA?
Yes. The Trustees of the New Castle Common are a public body (per 17-IB34) and violated FOIA by failing to produce two contracts: one with Antonio Lawn and Landscape and one with the New Castle Weekly…
Can someone ask Delaware DHSS for the full animal-cruelty complaint report under FOIA, and does that change if the report identifies the suspect and the witnesses?
No. Christiane Marchio asked DHSS for an animal-welfare complaint report. The complaint report (a LEISS report) names the suspect and complainants and is the basis for the investigatory file. The AG r…
Can Delaware deny a FOIA request just because the requester moved out of state, even if the records do not exist anyway?
The Department of Finance was right that the audio and video of three Retirement Benefit Study Committee meetings did not exist. The AG accepted a sworn affidavit on that point and held no FOIA violat…
What can a Delaware agency charge me to fulfill an email FOIA request?
No violation, with caveats. The AG ruled DOE's email FOIA cost estimate complied with FOIA: DTI's $38/hr retrieval and scrubbing was permitted under § 10003(i), and DOE could later charge for redactio…
If a Delaware county denies a FOIA request saying 'no records exist,' what proof does it need to provide, and can a sworn affidavit from one engineer end the dispute?
Yes, generally. The Sussex County Engineer signed two sworn affidavits attesting that all responsive records had been provided for the first request and that no records existed responsive to the secon…
Can a Delaware board vote in public on 'administrative action discussed in executive session' without identifying which employee, when there are only three employees in the agency?
Yes, in narrow circumstances. The DIAA Board has only three employees. Naming the employee in the public motion would have exposed private personnel information about an identifiable individual. The A…
Does Delaware recognize a deliberative process privilege that lets DNREC withhold raw PFAS sampling data from FOIA?
No. DNREC violated FOIA by denying AP reporter Randall Chase access to raw PFAS sampling data and related internal correspondence under a deliberative process privilege theory. Delaware courts have no…
When a Delaware agency invites stakeholders to advise on policy changes, do those meetings have to be open to the public?
Yes, when the group is appointed by a public official and charged with making recommendations. The Parks Director's surf-fishing Stakeholder Workgroup met four times to develop recommendations for the…
Can a city council president use a FOIA petition to allege that three other councilmembers held secret meetings about a tourism director hire, and what does the AG do when the suspicion seems plausible but everyone swears it didn't happen?
Affidavits win. Council President Michael Platt alleged that three other New Castle City Council members coordinated outside public meetings to flip the tourism-director hire. The three swore under oa…
What can I do if a Delaware public body just ignores my FOIA request?
It is a FOIA violation, and a recurring one. The AG ruled the Fort DuPont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation violated FOIA by ignoring two audit records requests, ordered a 10-day estimate, an…
Can a Delaware agency withhold an employee settlement agreement as a 'personnel file' just because the dispute went through the Merit Employee Relations Board?
Not automatically. DNREC initially withheld a $94,066 settlement with a former Planner IV under the personnel-file exemption because the dispute came from a MERB grievance, but on a second look it agr…
Are settlement agreements that the University of Delaware enters with employees or others available under FOIA, or can UDel withhold them because the settlements weren't paid from State money?
UDel can withhold them. Delaware FOIA only covers two slices of UDel: full Board of Trustees meetings, and University documents that 'relate to the expenditure of public funds.' UDel's general counsel…
Can a Delaware agency charge a $198 cost estimate to compile records that the requester believes should be readily available?
Yes, when the agency justifies the estimate. DelDOT supplied a sworn affidavit from the Chief of Right of Way explaining tab sheets are not in a centralized file, identifying the lowest-paid employees…
If a Delaware school board member has been elected but not yet sworn in, can that person sit in on an executive session?
Yes, narrowly. Victor James Leonard, Sr. was elected to the Red Clay Consolidated School Board on May 10, 2022, with a term beginning July 1, 2022. He attended two executive sessions on July 11 and 13…
Can an insurance company defending a fraud claim get Wilmington police body camera and street surveillance footage under FOIA?
Mixed. The City of Wilmington properly withheld three officers' body camera footage of a motor vehicle accident under § 10002(o)(3) (investigatory files compiled for civil or criminal law-enforcement …
If a Delaware public body recorded its meeting, can I get the recording even after a related lawsuit is filed?
Yes. The AG ruled the State Employee Benefits Committee violated FOIA by withholding the September 19, 2022 meeting recording. Once a public body records a public meeting, the recording is treated lik…
Can a Delaware city council take a discussion of police overtime, vacation, and city-vehicle use into a private executive session, and does the council have to put detailed background materials in the public meeting packet?
Not all of it. Dover City Council voted to defer Item 27 (special-event overtime, vacation, and city-vehicle usage) to a future executive session. The AG warned the Council that a general discussion o…
If a Delaware department says it will 'undertake to identify' people with responsive records and 'provide a cost estimate,' does that count as a FOIA response within the 15-day clock?
The Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security violated FOIA. It missed the 15-business-day deadline entirely, then said in an email after the petition was filed that it 'will undertake to id…
Can a Delaware journalist get a count of inmate deaths broken down by cause and facility under FOIA?
Yes, violation. The Department of Correction provided a log of inmate deaths with names and dates but redacted cause of death citing medical privacy. The DOC's affidavit explained how it produced the …
Browse Delaware opinions by topic
Attorney general opinions in Delaware are written by the Delaware Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.