No. CS/HB 437
Filed under Local Government.
Public Records; Provides that it is a violation of specified provisions to fail to acknowledge public records request promptly & respond to such request in good faith; revises various provisions relating to custodians of public records, agencies, fees, & penalties; requires written, detailed cost estimate be provided upon request to persons seeking to inspect or copy public record; requires courts to assess specified costs, fees, & penalties.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDCustodians of public records must respond within three business days: hand over the records, send a time-and-cost estimate, or deny the request while citing the exemption. Missing all three means the agency loses its right to charge the requester at all.
Courts must award attorney fees and litigation costs against any agency a lawsuit finds violated public-records law, and no longer require the requester to give five business days' advance written notice first.
Agencies may not charge anything for a request that takes under 30 minutes to fill, for the first 10 hours of a journalism, nonprofit, or research request, or for reviewing and redacting exempt material.
Willfully violating the chapter becomes a first-degree misdemeanor, and courts must fine an agency twice the awarded fees plus $200 a day when it shows intentional disregard of the constitutional right of access or a pattern of abuse.
AIA custodian has three business days after a request to hand over the records, send a time-and-cost estimate, or deny the request and cite the exemption. Missing all three forfeits the agency's right to charge for that record.
AIBeyond making willful violations a misdemeanor, the reworked penalty section forces a court to fine an agency twice the attorney-fee award plus $200 a day when it finds intentional disregard of the constitutional right of access or a pattern of abuse.
AICourts must award reasonable attorney fees and litigation costs against an agency whenever a records lawsuit shows it violated the law, replacing the old rule that required the requester to send written notice five business days before suing.
AIIn a records lawsuit, an agency cannot rely on an exemption or justification it did not already raise in writing before suit was filed, and cannot point to its own backlog of unfulfilled requests as an excuse for delay.
AIWhether the records are paper or electronic, an agency may not charge the requester anything, including duplication cost, if the request takes less than 30 minutes for staff to prepare.
AIFor a request serving a public purpose, such as journalism, nonprofit activity, academic or other research, or public agency program support, the agency may not charge the requester anything for the first 10 hours of staff time it estimates the request will take.
AIAn agency may no longer bill a requester for the staff time spent reviewing a record and blacking out the portions that are exempt or confidential before releasing what remains.
AIIf the requester asks, the custodian must produce a written, detailed estimate covering every cost tied to the request, specific enough that the requester can judge for themselves whether the estimate is lawful.