CPRA Guide – Individuals

Welcome to the Open Information Collective’s guide on the California Public Records Act for individuals! You can use this guide to make requests of any government agency in California, whether state or local. Please note that federal agencies, even when operating in California, are not subject to the California Public Records Act; however, you can still request information from them under the Freedom of Information Act, a federal law from which the California Public Records Act is based.

You can view the full California Public Records Act in Division 10 of Title 1 of the Government Code.

The Open Information Collective always stands ready to help anyone with California Public Records Act needs. You can contact us generally, or specifically contact FM Amy Parker, using the information on our contact page.

Basic Procedures

If you’re just looking to make a request, and don’t want or need to know all of the intricacies of the Act, this section should be enough. The rest of this guide is to ensure you know your rights, and are able to protect them. If you need further assistance, feel free to contact the OIC.

1. Find who in the agency to contact to submit public records requests. It’s always preferred to directly seek out the officer who’s most likely to be responsible for public records requests. This should be easy to find on Google for larger agencies; however, it’s not always directly clear. It is legal to send the request to anyone in the agency, and that individual is supposed to forward the request; however, especially in smaller agencies who are less familiar with the Act, this can invite delays, and seeking out the primary officer first is preferred. If there is no clear primary officer, send the request to the highest officer in the agency, such as a president or chair.
2. Clearly describe what records you’re looking for. Ambiguities in requests are unfortunately too often used to deny requests, or to provide different documents than what is being sought. You should have a clear and distinct description of the documents being requested. For instance, if you wanted pay data, instead of just requesting “salary records”, you’d want to be more specific, such as “all salary records for employees of [institution name] from [start year] to [end year]”. Note that it’s also important to be narrow enough with your description; records may not exist from certain time periods, for instance.
3. Submit your request. Once you’ve found contact information for the agency (this is typically an email address, but you also have the right to submit a request on written paper, to call in a request, or to submit a request by speaking to someone from the agency), submit your request. You can use the “Sample Request Template” below to do so; note that some modifications would be necessary if you want physical copies instead of electronic ones, but electronic ones are recommended as they avoid fees.
4. Keep following up. Followup is very, very important. Follow up every couple of days on the request to ensure that it’s been seen and is being processed, especially if the agency is being uncommunicative. If the request feels like it’s taking too long, review the “Timeline Protections” section of this guide.
5. Get your records! If everything went according to plan, you should’ve received your records. If the request was denied, research the reasons they provided for denial (see the rest of this guide if they didn’t provide reasons for the denial), or contact the OIC. If they never responded, consider following up with another employee in the agency, contacting the OIC, or contacting the local district attorney (for local agencies) or the California Attorney General (for state agencies).

Sample Request Template

Hello,

I hereby request, under Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) of Title 1 of the Government Code (also known as the “California Public Records Act”), copies of <records description> not otherwise prohibited from disclosure.

I am requesting electronic copies of these documents, and thus, no fees should be applied. If the documents are only in physical form, and a fee is demanded for scanning the documents, I exert my right to use my own equipment to scan the documents at no charge.

If any documents are nondisclosable, those documents should be segregated, and the disclosable documents provided. If content on/materials in the documents are nondisclosable, those should be redacted pursuant to GOV 7922.525(b).

If any segregations are performed, or this request is denied in its entirety, please note that under GOV 7922.540, the names of all individuals involved in the denial of the record must be provided.

Under GOV 7922.535(a), the records must be provided within ten calendar days; as such, please provide the records by no later than <ten days from the date> (with intentional delays to or beyond that point prohibited by GOV 7922.500).

Thank you.

Further Details of the Act

Residency Protections: There are no requirements to submit a California Public Records Act request. Anyone, regardless of residency, citizenship, or current location can submit one. You do not need to be physically present in California to submit a request, and charging different amounts based on someone’s physical location is not legal.

Intentions Protections: Under GOV 7921.300, responding to a request based on what your purpose for the data is, or the intentions of the request, is illegal. If you are asked, you do not have to provide your intentions; the only time providing intentions is reasonable is to help figure out what documents you’re seeking, not for determining whether a document is disclosable. If a request is denied based on what the agency feels your intentions for making the request were, or because of your statement of intentions, immediately contact the district attorney for the county the agency is located in, or the California Attorney General for state agencies. You may also want to report this to the OIC, as well as to the supervisor of the individual handling request in the agency (assuming they are not the top-level individual in the agency).

Timeline Protections: You have a right to receive records in a timely manner. It is illegal under GOV 7922.500 for an agency to intentionally delay the provision of records. There are also restrictions on how long an agency can take to provide records. Normally, it is ten calendar days from the day you submit your request; this applies even if the date of submission is not a working day for the agency. Some agencies will try and either claim that it is business days (which is definitively incorrect), or that they can specify whatever they want as long as they get an initial response within ten days; please report any agencies which make such claims to the OIC, and refer the agencies to the OIC to help clarify the law on the issue. There are four circumstances under which it is legal to extend the timeline, which are specified in GOV 7922.535(c). If they do so, they must tell you prior to the ten day mark, and the extension cannot be for longer than fourteen days; however, they must be able to provide justifications based on the categories in 7922.535(c) as to how they came up with that length of time, and they should not automatically default to fourteen days. Anything longer than fourteen days is illegal, and should be reported.

Medium Protections: You have the right to receive documents either electronically or in physical form. You also have the right to submit your request in any reasonable means of contacting the agency, whether it be by oral conversation, over the phone, by email, or by physical letter.

Cost Protections: Agencies may only charge for the physical costs of producing and duplicating the records. In most cases, no charges should apply, particularly if you’re requesting electronic records; “search fees” are completely illegal, and should be immediately reported to the district attorney for the county the agency is in, or to the California Attorney General for state agencies. If the agency needs to write (not use!) a computer program to create or find the documents, then those costs would apply; however, this is generally never necessary, as courts have ruled that there is never an obligation to create documents, and searching for documents should never require the creation of a new program. If an agency has costs for scanning or printing documents, it may elect to charge those; however, you have a right to use your own equipment.

Denial Identity: You have a right under GOV 7922.540 to know the names of all individuals involved in denying part or all of your request. This is the most common violation of the California Public Records Act – you do not have to request this information (although it often makes sense to do so if the agency did not provide it), rather the agency is required to provide it on all denials. Another common violation is failing to provide all of the names of individuals who denied the request; often the individual handling the request just puts their name without listing individuals who contributed to the denial, such as lawyers and consultants.

Walk-In Rights: You have a right to, at any time, walk into a public agency and demand to browse through records after they have been checked for nondisclosable portions, pursuant to GOV 7922.525. Note, however, many agencies refuse to recognize this right, and will often treat such requests as standard “copy requests”; it is an ongoing effort to ensure that agencies follow 7922.525. However, particularly in smaller local agencies, this can be an efficient way to access documents.

Denials: The most common denial is provided under GOV 7922.000, which states that denials may happen based on a conclusion by the agency “that on the facts of the particular case the public interest served by not disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record”. This is a hard denial to fight, but you can demand that the officer who denied the record on that reason explain how they came to that conclusion. The reasons for all denials must be provided at the time the request is denied, and further explanations must be provided on request.

Agencies Covered: Any state or local agency, including schools, cities, counties, agencies of any of those, or state agencies are covered. Some exceptions exist for certain specific agencies. The State Legislature and the courts are also not covered, as they have their own specific access/records laws.

Assistance Requirement: Every agency that is subject to the California Public Records Act must help you with making your request under GOV 7922.600. This includes helping you with making your request by figuring out what documents you’re actually trying to request, giving you information on how to access and view documents, and suggest workarounds or other methods for overcoming denials. This section is extremely powerful; agencies are essentially forced to work against their own denials and help you.

District Attorneys and the Attorney General: Theoretically, all district attorneys in California have the jurisdiction to pursue actions against agencies for California Public Records Act violations by re-making the request themselves to gain standing. However, in almost all cases, you should contact the district attorney for the county the agency is present in for assistance. In other cases, it may be helpful to contact your local district attorney; however, this usually won’t result in much. If the agency is a state agency, it is recommended to instead directly contact the California Attorney General’s office. Do note that all of these agencies are very busy, and may not always be ready and able to handle California Public Records Act issues; it may be easier to use the private right of action, or to contact a group like the OIC for help.

Private Right of Action: If a California Public Records Act violation has been committed against you, you have a “private right of action” under GOV 7923.000 to sue the agency to compel the production of records. This should be taken only as a last resort; these suits cost significant amounts of money, and often take a long time. Courts have also historically not been friendly to requesters in California Public Records Act battles, such as in Times Mirror Co. vs. Superior Court. However, if a document is really critical for the public to have access to, a court battle may be necessary.