Hamilton County Board of Commissioners

public record R.C. 149.43 court of claims R.C. 2743.75 business negotiation attorney-client waive common interest work product trade secret reasonable period of time draft ambiguous redact. Requester sought copies of email between respondent and the Cincinnati Bengals organization during negotiation of an agreement regarding real property purchase and management. Respondent denied access, claiming all email content was attorney-client privileged communication and attorney work product, and that some information in the emails was trade secret. The special master found that almost all content was merely negotiation of business terms, with no showing that the correspondence involved respondent counsels' legal professional services. The special master found that the privilege had been waived for emails that included an unnecessary third party, i.e., members of the Cincinnati Bengals organization or respondent's contracted publicity consultant. The special master found that respondent did not reasonably anticipate litigation over the matters communicated and thus the attorney work product privilege did not apply. The special master further found that respondent had neither identified nor supported any information in the communications as the county's trade secret. Respondent admitted that it misplaced and forgot the public records request for over three months. The special master found this constituted a violation of its duty in R.C. 149.43(B)(1) to respond "within a reasonable period of time."