On remand, the trial court again dismissed Sander’s complaint which sought to compel the State Bar to produce unidentifiable records for all applicants to the California Bar Examination from 1972 to 2008 in the following categories: race or ethnicity, law school, transfer status, year of law school graduation, law school and undergraduate GPA, LSAT scores, and performance on the bar examination. This decision affirms the dismissal on the ground that the Public Records Act (Gov. Code § 6250 et seq.) does not require a governmental agency to create new records to produce pursuant to a request, but only requires the production of otherwise existing governmental records. A government agency is required to produce non-exempt responsive computer records in the same manner as paper records and can be required to compile, redact, or omit information from an electronic record. But it cannot be required to create a new record by changing the substantive content of an existing record or replacing existing data with new data.
California Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3 (Siggins, P.J.); August 23, 2018; 26 Cal. App. 5th 651