Senate Bill 194 aims to amend Wisconsin's public records law regarding the awarding of attorney fees and costs when a requester seeks access to contested records. Currently, a requester can only be awarded fees if they prevail in court, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court defined as obtaining a judicially sanctioned change in the legal relationship between the parties. This bill seeks to change that standard by allowing requesters to be considered as having prevailed if they either receive a judicial order or an enforceable written agreement, or if the authority voluntarily releases the contested record and the court finds that the filing of the mandamus action was a substantial factor in that release.

To implement this change, the bill renumbers the existing statute 19.37 (2) (a) to 19.37 (2) (a) 1 and creates a new provision, 19.37 (2) (a) 2, which outlines the new criteria for determining when a requester has prevailed. This new standard aligns more closely with the federal Freedom of Information Act, thereby potentially increasing the likelihood that requesters will be awarded attorney fees and costs even if the authority releases the records without a court order, as long as the requester’s action contributed to that outcome.