Complete Colorado: After more than a year of back and forth negotiations with a state agency, along with an expensive but ultimately victorious lawsuit, Complete Colorado has finally received a check from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) for a partial reimbursement of legal costs related to HCPF unlawfully withholding documents in response to a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request.

That legal battle cost Complete Colorado more than $46,000 in legal expenses just to get HCPF to abide by state law. The records were finally turned over in March, a full year after the initial CORA request was made, after Denver District Court Judge Jill Dorancy determined that HCPF wrongly withheld dozens of emails based on a vague and often abused exception in the law.

The legal victory meant the state was on the hook for Complete Colorado’s legal fees. However, just as they tied up the open records process to avoid public scrutiny, the agency along with its legal counsel, the Attorney General’s office, stalled in reimbursement and tried to avoid payment.

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