March 8, 2012

Ms. Loris Jones

Public Information Officer

Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners

333 Guadalupe, Suite 3-810

Austin, Texas 78701-3942

OR2012-03540

Dear Ms. Jones:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 447679.

The Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (the "board") received a request for information related to a named veterinarian. You state some of the submitted information has been released. You claim the rest of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the information you submitted.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses information other statutes make confidential. You claim section 552.101 in conjunction with section 801.207 of the Occupations Code. Section 801.207(b) provides that "[a]n investigation record of the board, including a record relating to a complaint that is found to be groundless, is confidential." Occ. Code § 801.207(b). You indicate the information at issue is related to a complaint filed with the board and the board's investigation of the complaint. Based on your representations and our review, we conclude the information at issue is confidential under section 801.207(b) of the Occupations Code and must be withheld from the requestor on that basis under section 552.101 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ See generally Open Records Decision No. 683 (2009) (addressing issues involving Occ. Code § 801.207).

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

James W. Morris, III

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JWM/em

Ref: ID# 447679

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note the submitted records contain information the board would be required to withhold from the general public to protect the named veterinarian's privacy. But as an attorney for the veterinarian, the present requestor has a right of access to his client's private information. See Gov't Code § 552.023(a) ("A person or a person's authorized representative has a special right of access, beyond the right of the general public, to information held by a governmental body that relates to the person and that is protected from public disclosure by laws intended to protect that person's privacy interests."); Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individual requests information concerning himself). Should the board receive another request for these same records from a person who would not have a right of access to the veterinarian's private information, the board should resubmit these records and request another decision. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(a), .302.

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