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By that you mean?
By LeslieWilber in For your information
October 1, 2008

Every time I get a letter from the Attorney General's Office, I'm pretty excited. After all, it could mean information I requested months ago is soon to follow.

But on average it takes me about five hours per paragraph to read an AG's ruling. Here is some sample language from one:

 "You have not indicated the district attorney , as the investigating agency, has adopted a rule that governs the release of this type of information; therefore, we assume that no such regulation exists. Giving that assumption, the district attorney must withhold the requested prosecution information under section 552101 of the Government code in conjunction with section 261.201 of the Family Code. See Open Records Decision No. 440 at 2 (1986) (predecessor statute). As our ruling is dispositive, we need not address your argument against disclosure."

Now I know what dispositive means here, but honestly, is that a real word people use? People who aren't writing legal documents? My media law professor would go on and on about how bad legal writing is. But truly, you can never understand this language's capacity for opacity until you read legal documents every day.

I do hereby affirm that asserted fact has been strenuously verified through personal optical inspection of certain criminal-justice oriented documents in a professional, journalistic capacity in conjunction with an accute personal curiosity. Yo.