A FOIL request was filed with the New York State Office of Court Administration regarding the "Legal Hand" program

I posted a blog yesterday about the "Legal Hand" program that is part of a partnership between the "Center for Court Innovation" and the New York State Court Administration and that is reportedly financed through a 1 million dollar donation from an "anonymous donor".

Additionally, I found a report today indicating that the "anonymous" donor is an anonymous "private" benefactor.

When a representative of a program identifies an allegedly "anonymous" donor as a "private" benefactor, that means that the identity of the "benefactor" is known by the program organizer, it is simply not released to the public.

Yet, since the program is run by a partnership with a public entity, New York State Unified Court System, the partnership does not have a right to withhold from the public the identity of this private do-gooder, as well as information about who works in the partnership, what are their salaries, contracts of the partnership, founding documents of the partnership, financial documents of the partnership.

And, of course, documents pertaining to financing of the partnership, are also public records subject to Freedom of Information Law.

With that in mind, today I filed a Freedom of Information request with the New York State Court Administration, as follows:

 

I am looking forward to see who was the "private benefactor" who financed a partnership formed by the New York State Unified Court system, and will publish responses by the NYS Court Administration as to this FOIL inquiry.

Stay tuned.