Friday, December 20, 2013

‘Daily News’ public records request in judge’s hands | www.palmbeachdailynews.com

Did you know that releasing a "trade secret" is a third degree felony according to Florida law? Seems that it is. The court case continues with the latest hearing taking place yesterday between the Town of Palm Beach and the Palm Beach Daily News. This is part of the article from the Shiny Sheet, click title for link.
"The town’s dilemma was that the newspaper was asking for records that Sterling said the town couldn’t release because of “trade secrets.”
Elwell testified that the town filed the lawsuit to have the judge decide if Rosow’s documents were public records because this was not a clear-cut issue, from the town’s perspective of whether these are documents that fall under the public records law.
“Being in this unique situation, where there’s a third party that they had rights that may cause the town great exposure for liability. we weren’t going to refuse the public records,” Elwell said. “That was not our fight. But, at the same time, if we provided the public records and they were found to have been provided inappropriately and violated private rights that Sterling had, we would have had a serious problem for the town.”