Commonwealth Court Grants Preliminary Injunction Halting Zoning Limits in Act 13

On January 6, 2011, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court confirmed that municipalities may redact portions of their solicitors’  bills to eliminate disclosure of billing entries protected by the attorney-client privilege before producing the bills as part of a Right to Know Act request, and that the requestor may be enjoined to return unredacted copies erroneously produced by the municipality.  The Court reviewed the appeal of a requestor, who had obtained unredacted invoices issued by the township’s open records officer despite the solicitor’s advice to withhold the invoices until they could be edited.  The trial court issued a permanent injunction requiring the requesting lawyer to return the unredacted invoices, and a divided 3-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court affirmed.