A Very Expensive Mistake!
Ohio Public Records Briefing - Edition #107
Whether you’re still celebrating the Seahawks’ dominant Super Bowl win or you’re a Patriots fan trying to figure out how a 6-0 lead turned into a 29-13 loss, we can all agree on one thing: timing is everything. In football, a split-second delay leads to a pick-six; in the world of Ohio public records, a delay leads to a different kind of scoring—statutory damages. If you thought the Super Bowl commercials were pricey, wait until you see the bill for ignoring an inmate’s email requests!
Court Case(s) Review: State ex rel. Macksyn v. Spencer, 2026-Ohio-44.
This week we have another new case for you from the Ohio Supreme Court. Like last week, this serves as a reminder that timing can be a very expensive mistake.
In this case, an inmate named Delanor Macksyn sued several Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) employees for failing to promptly provide the public records he’d requested. Macksyn sent several requests in March and April 2024 asking for emails and other documents related to himself—specifically, discussions about prison policies or his treatment. You read that right: he was requesting internal discussions about himself. Goofy!
The DRC staff initially provided some records but delayed or ignored others, leading Macksyn to file a mandamus lawsuit in June 2024. When the court first considered the case in 2025, it mostly denied his request for a writ but ordered DRC to either produce specific emails from three of his requests or officially confirm they didn’t exist. Following that order, the DRC provided emails for two of the requests but said the third didn’t exist. There’s the first problem: some emails the inmate requested in 2024 weren’t provided for more than a year!
The only issue here was whether Macksyn could recover the $1,000 in statutory damages allowed for delayed responses to public records requests. If you read last week’s edition, you know this can get very expensive. The breakdown is $100 for each business day of delay, starting from the day the lawsuit is filed, capped at $1,000 per request. Since each request is considered individually, the total can stack up fast.