From the Legal Hotline

By Teri Henning, General Counsel; Melissa Melewsky, Media Law Counsel
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association

Q: I recently requested copies of legal bills that a township solicitor submitted to the township. The township denied my request, claiming that solicitors’ bills are not public records and that they are protected by the attorney client privilege? Is he correct?

A: No. Under the Right to Know Law, citizens are entitled to track the spending of public money, including the amounts spent on attorneys. Dollar figures spent on attorneys would not reveal any attorney client communication and must be released.

In bills relating to litigation matters, the township may redact (strike-out) the “description of services” portion of the bills, although the remainder of the bills should be produced.

Although the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled (in Schenck v. Centre Township) that descriptions of services in a solicitor’s litigation–related invoices are not public, that ruling does not affect that fact that the spending of public money is a matter of public record. It is also important to note that in the Schenck case, the bills were provided to the requester, only in a redacted form. The bills, as provided, did reflect the identity of the cases for which services had been provided, the dates that the services were provided, the name of the attorney providing the services, the time expended, the hourly rate and the total amount charged. No one argued that this information was not public, and the limited holding in the case is that the description of litigation-related services in a solicitor’s invoice is not accessible under the Right to Know Law. The bills themselves (as redacted) should still be public.

The Schenck case is currently on appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

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