The WMC Litigation Center filed this open-records lawsuit in December 2023 on behalf of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Inc. (WMC). WMC made an open-records request with the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) in April 2022, requesting records of communications between DOJ and a private law firm that the state government had hired to sue businesses for manufacturing and using certain lawful chemicals. DOJ denied WMC’s open-records request about 18 months later, asserting that all the responsive documents were either attorney-client privileged communications or attorney work product. The WMC Litigation Center filed this lawsuit to seek access to the requested records. In its complaint, the WMC Litigation Center alleges that WMC is entitled to the requested records and that DOJ violated the open-records law by taking 18 months to respond to the request. This case is awaiting a decision in the Dane County Circuit Court.
