In our previous columns, we’ve written about your fundamental right to know and how it provides all Montanans with an important way to interact with our state and local governments: You have the right to know how your government makes decisions, spends money, and conducts business, and you can get that information by asking the most relevant state or local agency (and we’re happy to help). Often, Montanans can make requests and receive information at no personal cost.

But as we pointed out in our last column on the dangers of “fees” that authorities can impose to restrict your right to information, The government may feel audacious in restricting your rights because it knows that the only way to get justice if your request is denied is to spend thousands of dollars taking the agency that denied your request to court.

Requests for information may be denied for legitimate reasons. Perhaps the information is not ripe for disclosure under the right to know because the needs of individual privacy outweigh the benefits of disclosure. But information may also be denied improperly.

Government agencies may deny requests because of a good faith imbalance between the individual’s privacy and the public’s right to know. Agencies may also deny requests to hide information from public view, which is precisely what this right is designed to prevent.

In either case, where the state wrongly denies a request, your only recourse is to take the agency to court. That could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. At the end of the case, if you win, a judge will order the agency to provide the information you requested. But the judge will not necessarily order the state to pay your attorney fees, and most Montanans cannot afford those fees for an information request.

But there are solutions to this problem. A simple, one-line bill passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor could require the state agency that denied your request to pay your attorney fees if a court finds that the agency violated your constitutional right to know.

Requiring the state to pay attorney fees when it loses a right-to-know case has several advantages. First, citizens whose right-to-know has been violated by the state would have their request granted at no additional cost. The state would also be more reluctant to deny requests, for fear of having to pay not only their own attorneys (whom they are already paying) but also the citizen’s attorney. The advantages would further encourage the atmosphere of openness in government that the right-to-know was intended to create.

There are other ways to address the problem of attorney fees. In such a solution, the state could create a judicial office designated to review right-to-know requests that have been denied. Your denial of a request for information could be reviewed by an administrative law judge at no cost to you. If you disagree with that judge, you can take further action in court.

We believe the right to know is essential to Montana’s democracy, to prevent government secretive behavior, and to increase government responsiveness to its citizens. Unfortunately, if costly litigation remains the only way to remedy a violation of the right, it will be impossible for most Montanans to fully realize their right to know. Fortunately, we can demand better from our government and encourage simple, necessary changes to the right to know to ensure that citizens can understand how our money is spent, how decisions are made, and how government conducts our state’s business.

Visit our website at montanatransparencyproject.org. If you have any questions, comments, column topics you would like to see covered, or would like to submit your own information request, please contact us at (email protected) and we will be happy to help!