Requires a municipality to disclose on their official website the specific issues, details and costs of any legal action of which the town or city is a named defendant within 60 days after the close of the fiscal year.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would require Rhode Island cities and towns to publicly disclose information about lawsuits in which they are named as a defendant. Specifically, each municipality would need to post details about these legal cases — including what the lawsuit is about, the specific issues involved, and how much the case is costing taxpayers — on the city or town's official website. This information would need to be published within 60 days after the end of each fiscal year.

The goal of the bill appears to be increasing transparency around how local governments handle legal challenges and spend public money on litigation. Currently, residents may have limited visibility into how often their town or city is sued, what those lawsuits involve, and what they ultimately cost. Under this bill, that information would be made easily accessible to anyone with internet access.

This bill would primarily affect all Rhode Island municipalities — cities and towns — which would be responsible for compiling and publishing the required information. It would also benefit residents and taxpayers who want to stay informed about legal matters involving their local government. There could be some administrative burden on municipalities to gather and organize this data each year, but the bill does not appear to create new financial penalties for residents or change how lawsuits themselves are handled. The bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it will be reviewed before any further legislative action is taken.