Office of Information Practices

October 2, 2012

The state Office of Information Practices (OIP), in collaboration with the Hawaii State Bar Association (HSBA), will be conducting continuing legal education seminars in October and November, 2012, to educate attorneys about important updates in the open government laws and exciting new procedural and technological changes that will help to make Hawaii’s state and county governments even more open and accessible to the public.

The seminar will inform attendees about the new Sunshine Law changes that went into effect in July 2012, as well as the new law allowing government agencies to appeal from OIP’s decisions beginning in January 2013. The proposed administrative rules governing appeals to OIP will also be discussed, along with recent open government litigation and OIP opinions. Moreover, the seminar will explain OIP’s new tool to help agencies comply with the Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA)—the UIPA Records Request Log—and how it fits into Governor Neil Abercrombie’s new open data initiative and the State’s new website.

Legal counsel to the state and county agencies as well as private sector attorneys advising clients that work with government agencies should become familiar with the new laws and procedural requirements. The first session of this seminar will be in Honolulu at the State Capitol Auditorium on Friday, October 19, 2012, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Future sessions held on the neighbor islands are in the works for later in October and in November, with dates to be announced. 

This seminar is 1.5 hours long and qualifies for 1.5 hours of mandatory continuing professional education (MCPE) credit. The seminar charge is $45 for early registration by government lawyers, and $55 for general early registration. It is anticipated that this seminar will be followed next year by HSBA/OIP’s second seminar, which will focus on the new administrative rules concerning appeals to OIP that will be promulgated by then. For more information and seminar registration, go tohttps://www.legalspan.com/hsba/catalog.asp?ItemID=20121001-299250-213434&override=1&PrintPage=1