Arkansas Attorney General Opinions: How to Find, Read and Cite Them

Short answer: Arkansas attorney general opinions are written answers from the state's chief lawyer. The list holds three kinds. Some answer legal questions from officials and lawmakers. Some decide if a public employee's file must be released under the state's records law. Some approve or reject the wording of a proposed ballot measure. In those last two settings a private person can receive an opinion. Courts do not have to follow any of them. The state's top court has still leaned on the records ones.

TL;DR

• Three kinds on one list: legal advice to officials, public-records rulings, and ballot-title decisions. The last two have deadlines.
• Who can ask: officials and lawmakers for advice. For personnel records, the records holder, the requester or the employee. For ballots, the sponsors.
• The weight: the Arkansas Supreme Court says opinions are not binding. On personnel records, the legislature said to use them for guidance. The court has adopted the office's definitions.
• Citing: the number is the year plus a count, such as 2026-053. The year can lag the date on the letter.
• Still good? The office posts no list of withdrawn opinions that I found. Later opinions say when they disagree.

Three kinds of Arkansas attorney general opinions

A statute is a law passed by the legislature. Each kind rests on a different one. A.C.A. stands for Arkansas Code Annotated, the official collection of the state's statutes.

Section 25-16-706 starts with the governor and the heads of the executive departments. It adds prosecutors and state boards. It also covers either house of the General Assembly (the legislature) "and any member thereof upon the constitutionality of any proposed bill," meaning whether a bill would break the constitution. County election boards are on the list too.

The second kind comes from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which opens government records to the public. Say someone asks for a government employee's personnel or job-evaluation records. The records holder, which the law calls the custodian, has 24 hours to decide whether to release them. Then "Either the custodian, requester, or the subject of the records may" ask for an opinion. The deadline is the close of the office's next business day. The attorney general must answer "within three (3) working days." Until then, the holder "shall not disclose the records."

The third kind comes from the ballot law. Sponsors must file the popular name (a short title) and the ballot title (the wording voters see) of a proposed measure before they collect signatures. The office then has ten business days. It must "approve and certify" the title or "substitute and certify" a better one. It may also reject the filing and say why.

What the office calls them

The office describes its work as "formal written opinions." It also says it cannot give private legal advice. Its FAQ cites section 25-16-701, which bars the attorney general from the private practice of law. So a private person asking "what should I do?" will be turned away. A private person asking whether a public employee's file may be released will get an opinion.

Do courts have to follow them?

No. Courts call opinions "not binding," meaning a judge need not follow them. They can be "persuasive," meaning a judge may give them weight. In Thomas v. Hall, 2012 Ark. 66, the Arkansas Supreme Court wrote: "This court has said many times that Attorney General opinions are not binding on this court." Then it turned. "And yet the General Assembly specifically said that Attorney General opinions should be used for guidance in the FOIA context." The court then used the office's own definition of a job-evaluation record. It found the definition "workable."

In Arkansas Parole Board v. Johnson, 2022 Ark. 209, the court repeated that opinions are not binding but "can be persuasive," and found one persuasive. I found no Arkansas statute that shields an official who follows an opinion.

Where to find them, and how far back

The office's opinions search is the main source. The opinions themselves are PDF letters. A release from Attorney General Tim Griffin dated February 26, 2026 describes upgrades. They added "thousands of previously unsearchable opinions from decades ago." Text search improved too. The office's own footnotes cite opinions as far back as 1987. The FOIA page links a separate search for records opinions.

How to read the number

The number is the year plus a count. It does not always match the date on the letter. Opinion 2025-120 is dated January 26, 2026. Opinion 2025-125 is dated January 23, 2026, three days earlier. The count seems to be assigned when a request comes in, not when the answer goes out. The office does not explain this on the pages I read.

How to cite one

The office writes "Ark. Att'y Gen. Op. 2022-032," short for Arkansas Attorney General Opinion (Att'y means attorney), and, for several, "Ark. Att'y Gen. Ops. 2015-072, 1999-147." In the footnotes I read, opinions through 1998 use a two-digit year, as in "98-126." From 1999 on, the year has four digits. Courts shorten it differently. Thomas v. Hall cites "Op. Ark. Att'y Gen. No. 161 (2011)," which means 2011-161.

A real recent opinion: can a state employee block release of a file?

In opinion 2026-053, dated May 28, 2026, a state employee objected to the release of 16 records from her personnel file. She asked the office to review the records holder's plan. The answer: "the custodian has correctly classified these records as personnel records that are subject to release." The holder had also "properly redacted" her contact details, Social Security number and birth date. Redacted means blacked out.

The reason is a balancing test, which weighs one side against the other. The office weighs the employee's privacy against the public's interest. It does so "with the scale tipped in favor of public access." The employee's own view of the harm does not count. The test is objective. You can read the full opinion 2026-053. A records holder can use the same steps.

An older opinion that courts still cite

Opinion 2011-161 is dated December 16, 2011. A Little Rock police officer objected to the release of an internal affairs file. The attorney general agreed with release. The opinion gives a definition that the office says it has "consistently" used. An evaluation record is one "created by or at the behest of the employer." It must "detail the performance or lack of performance of the employee" in a specific incident.

Two months later the Supreme Court quoted that definition in Thomas v. Hall and cited the opinion. A 2019 appeals decision notes that the supreme court "has approved" the office's definition. Opinion 2026-053 still relies on Thomas v. Hall for it. Read opinion 2011-161 and then the court's use of it.

How to tell if an opinion is still good

The office does not appear to post a list of withdrawn or overruled Arkansas opinions. I found none. Instead, a later opinion says when it disagrees. Opinion 2023-052 states: "Two of my predecessors disagreed on the answer to that question." It then gives its own reading. Search the number you want in newer opinions and in court decisions. Check the statute too, because a new law can change an old answer.

Mistakes people make in Arkansas

• Treating a records ruling as advice. It answers one file, on one day.
• Releasing before the opinion arrives. The statute says the holder must wait.
• Assuming the year in the number is the year of the letter. Check the date on it.
• Reading a ballot decision as a view on the measure. The office says its decision "is unrelated to my view of the proposed measure's merits."
• Citing a court's short form as the number. "No. 161 (2011)" is 2011-161.

This guide is part of US Law Data: The Complete Guide. For how Arkansas names and numbers its code, see how to find and cite Arkansas law. The national guide compares other states. In Texas, records rulings sit in a separate series.

FAQ

Can a private person get an Arkansas attorney general opinion? In two settings that I found. A person who requested a government employee's file, or who is the subject of one, can ask for a records opinion. Sponsors of a ballot measure get a decision on its wording. The office cannot give private legal advice.

How long does an Arkansas attorney general opinion take? A records opinion is due in three working days after the request. A ballot-title decision is due in ten business days. The law sets no clock for legal-advice opinions.

Is an Arkansas attorney general opinion the law? No. The state supreme court says opinions are not binding. On personnel-record questions the legislature said to use them for guidance.

What does a number like 2025-120 mean? It is the year plus a count. The count appears to be assigned when the request arrives, so a 2025 number can carry a January 2026 date.

How do I cite one? Use the office's form, such as Ark. Att'y Gen. Op. 2026-053. Add the date from the letter.

Where do I find older opinions? Use the office's search page. The office says a 2026 upgrade added thousands of older opinions.

How do I know if a later ruling replaced an opinion? I found no official list. Search the number in newer opinions and in court decisions.

Software that must show an Arkansas opinion next to the code section it discusses can fetch both from the US primary law data API. Primary law means the official texts themselves, and an API is a feed that lets software look them up.

Priyansh Khodiyar

Co-Founder & CTO

Priyansh leads engineering and AI at Vaquill AI: the pipelines that pull statutes, regulations and court rules from every US jurisdiction's official publisher, and the REST API, MCP server and open dataset that serve them.