Dear Tim, I’m happy to share that AZCIR has dismissed its lawsuit against the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office for a particularly egregious violation of Arizona’s public records law, successfully negotiating for access to the public documents and an $8,000 settlement for legal fees. In March, AZCIR filed a special action in Cochise County Superior Court seeking basic public records about staffing within the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. AZCIR’s Isaac Stone Simonelli submitted the public records request in August 2022, but didn’t receive a response form the agency despite repeated follow-up emails and phone calls. With help from David Bodney and Matthew Kelley at Ballard Spahr LLP, AZCIR filed the lawsuit to not only gain access to what are undeniably public records, but to also set a precedent that agencies can no longer ignore public records laws with impunity. Although cases such as this shouldn’t need court intervention in the first place, I’m calling this one a win for AZCIR and the public. We’ve heard from other reporters who live or work in Cochise County that the sheriff’s office has also started responding to their public records requests—requests like ours that languished without an initial response. This is exactly the outcome we wanted. You can read more about our case below, including how it took several rounds of negotiations to secure the records we requested nearly 10 months ago. | 
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