HAR § 18-231-19.5-07 — Written opinions; petition for further segregation

(a) A person to whom a written opinion pertains may petition the department for further segregation of some or all of the information in the written opinion that the department proposes to disclose. The petition shall be submitted in writing to the department’s technical review office within thirty days after the notice of intention to disclose is mailed. (b) The petition shall contain: (1) Information identifying the written opinion for which additional segregation is sought; (2) An indication of the information the department did not segregate but the petitioner believes should be segregated; and (3) For each item of information described in paragraph (2), an explanation of why the petitioner believes that the item of information should be segregated. (c) No special form shall be required for the petition. A letter addressed to the technical review office, department of taxation, shall be a sufficient petition under this section if the letter complies with subsections (a) and (b). (d) The thirty-day period in subsection (a) may be extended by the department for good cause shown. The department may refuse to extend the thirty-day period if the extension would leave the department an unreasonably short time to consider the petition before the written opinion must be disclosed under section 18-231-19.5-06(b) (one- hundred-eighty days from the date the notice of intention to disclose was mailed). (e) Within thirty days after receiving the petition, but not more than one-hundred-eighty days from the date the notice of intention to disclose was mailed, the department shall mail its final determination to the petitioner. (f) A petition for further segregation shall be denied, in whole or in part, if the department determines that the petitioner does not have a material interest in maintaining the confidentiality of the disputed information. HRS §231-19.5