What do Attorney Generals opinions address?
Government Code section 12519 states that opinions shall be provided on “questions of law.” Thus requests for opinions to resolve factual disputes or to resolve conflicting inferences which may arise from certain facts will be declined. The Attorney General has long followed the practice of rephrasing the questions presented. This is done not only to assure a response that will properly address the legal problem confronted by the requester, but also to sufficiently define the circumstances so that an opinion response based on precise legal analysis may be made. To that end the requester will often be contacted for more particulars of the problem. However, the Attorney General’s office will not conduct surveys or make investigations to ascertain the facts needed to properly frame a question for legal analysis. If the law requires a public officer to be a lawyer or the office is provided with full time staff counsel, that lawyer has the primary responsibility for resolving the legal issu
