From time to time I get calls from reporters who are doing stories about Virginia’s FOIA or public access laws in general. Invariably, I’ll be asked how Virginia rates against other states: is it better, worse, average?

When asked, I tend to limp along in response, hedging here, qualifying there, because it’s really tough to say.

There’s shock value in being among the worst FOIA laws in the country, and there’s pride in being among the best. I know Virginia’s law is in neither extreme. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

The difficulty, of course, is that records and meetings laws are so very different from state to state. No two states have identical procedures for asking for records or for going into closed session. No two states have identical exemptions. No two states have the same enforcement mechanisms. And no two states have the same provisions elsewhere in their state law annals that may affect disclosure.

The upshot is that there are portions of Virginia’s law (and every other state’s laws) that are “good,” and portions that I wish were otherwise.

Here are a few things I like about Virginia’s law:

It was a busy week in the courts last week for access to government records, and I'm not even talking about the release on Wikileaks of tens of thousands of classified documents related to the war in Afganistan.

Right here in Virginia, three cases in varying stages of litigation were bright on the access horizon.

Like flossing, we all know that we’d be better off if we were better organized, but we either dread the prospect of starting, or we lose the motivation to keep going after we start.

Some governments feel overwhelmed by FOIA requests. Indeed, a clerk in Powhatan County felt so overwhelmed by multiple requests from a single person that she asked the county attorney, who asked his legislator, to introduce a bill this session allowing governments to take someone to court for filing too many FOIA requests (i.e., harassment).

The bill was sent to the FOIA Council, which will begin study on the issue tomorrow, July 22.

Setting aside the question for now about FOIA requests motivated by a desire to harass or trouble a government body (and I know it happens), there is still the question of government bodies and agencies trying to respond to everyday FOIA requests.