Focus on FOIA failures

THE LAW Association says it has “listened with increasing concern” to the “spate of ‘lawyer-bashing’ which has permeated the debate on the proposed amendments to the Freedom of Information Act.”

In a statement, the association said it was not “as is being suggested, that attorneys-at-law are being accused of pursuing frivolous claims of breaches of the Act on behalf of their clients.”

“Indeed, given that the major concern is the amount of money in costs which public authorities are ordered to pay as a result of successful challenges to refusals to provide documents requested, there is the clear recognition that the various claims which gave rise to these orders for costs were meritorious,” the association said.

“Respectfully, instead of blaming attorneys-at-law for the state of affairs which has prompted the proposed amendments, focus should be placed on the failures which have led to the legally flawed decisions by public authorities which resulted in those costs awarded by the court.

“The danger exists that by subjecting attorneys-at-law to highly publicised criticism for doing their jobs successfully, they may be reluctant to take on controversial challenges and otherwise unlawful action by the State may go un-remedied,” the statement added.

Attorney General Faris Al Rawi, speaking on the legislation at a media briefing on June 11, accused some attorneys of “milking” the State of money through filing judicial review applications in relation to information not released in freedom of information applications.

He presented unconfirmed statistics which show a minimal denial rate for FOIA requests, which between 2010 and 2014 hovered around four per cent, with 13 per cent denials in 2013.

Those figures, according to Al Rawi, showed an upward trend for 2015 and 2016, moving to 28 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. He described the FOIA system as being under severe attack by “UNC lawyers” who were taking advantage of loopholes and milking the State for money.