In Lake v. City of Phoenix, et. al., 2009 Ariz. LEXIS 257 (S. Ct. Ariz. Oct. 29, 2009), the Arizona Supreme Court vacated the a court of appeals ruling and held that if a public entity maintains a public record in an electronic format, then the electronic version, including any embedded metadata, is subject to disclosure under public records laws.

Plaintiff David Lake, a Phoenix police officer, filed an administrative complaint and federal lawsuit alleging employment discrimination by the City of Phoenix.  He received paper copies of notes from his supervisor pursuant to a public records request, but noticed that certain documents appeared to have been altered.  Lake then requested "metadata" from electronic files, including the creation date, access date, and print dates of various documents.  The trial court denied his request holding that metadata and other embedded data in electronic records is not included in the definition of public record.  The court of appeals affirmed.

The Arizona Supreme Court, citing The Sedona Conference®, Sedona Principles Addressing Electronic Document Production, ruled that the trial court had erred by parsing the electronic version of Lake's supervisor's notes and focusing separately on the metadata contained within the document. The Supreme Court found that the supervisor's notes are public records kept in an electronic format which would necessarily include any embedded application metadata.  The court held that when a public entity maintains a public record in an electronic format, the electronic version of the record, including any embedded metadata, is subject to disclosure under Arizona's public records law.  The city's compliance can be assured by providing a copy of the record in its native format, unless the nature of the public record precludes any need for the electronic version, is unduly burdensome or harassing.  The court did not determine a broader issue of whether an agency is required to preserve public records in an electronic format.