Indiana Code 5-14-3-4: Mandatory vs. Discretionary Withholding

Indiana Code 5-14-3-4 is the exemption list inside Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act. It sorts protected records into two groups: those a public agency is prohibited from releasing (subsection (a)) and those an agency is permitted but not required to withhold (subsection (b)). Which group your denied record falls into controls how you fight the denial, because a mandatory exemption is a yes-or-no question about category fit, while a discretionary exemption also lets you argue the agency’s refusal was arbitrary or capricious.

Records the Agency Must Withhold

Subsection (a) is the mandatory list. An agency holding a record in one of these categories cannot release it unless another state or federal statute specifically requires disclosure, or a court compels production through discovery. Even an agency that wants to release the record is not free to do so. The categories most requesters run into are:

Records declared confidential by Indiana statute, federal statute, or a rule the agency adopted under specific statutory authority to classify records as confidential.¹
Trade secrets.
Confidential financial information voluntarily provided by a person on request. Financial information someone was required by statute to file with the agency does not qualify.¹
Research materials from state educational institutions, including negotiation records and materials received from collaborating parties.
Patient medical records and charts created by a provider, absent written patient consent.
Social Security numbers contained in agency records.
Photos, video, and audio recordings of an autopsy.
The identity of callers to a government fraud hotline and all records of those calls.¹
Identifying details of crime victims younger than 18, unless a parent or guardian who has not been charged with a crime against the child consents in writing.
Transcripts and license examination scores obtained through a licensure process.
Debtor contact information and loss-mitigation packages filed in foreclosure proceedings.
Records classified as confidential under rules adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court.

The federal-law category at subsection (a)(3) is how laws like FERPA reach Indiana records requests. A school district asked for student education records cannot release them because FERPA independently prohibits disclosure without parental or student consent outside narrow circumstances. No separate Indiana statute is needed; the federal confidentiality rule alone triggers the mandatory exemption.

Records the Agency May Withhold

Subsection (b) is discretionary. The agency is allowed to withhold these records but can choose to release them if disclosure serves the public interest. The categories most often invoked are:

Investigatory records compiled by a law enforcement agency or a private university police department. Body-camera and similar law enforcement recordings are not automatically treated as investigatory records under this provision. Agencies may share investigatory records with victim advocates, schools for safety purposes, and certain state agencies without losing the ability to withhold them from other requesters.¹
Attorney work product prepared by an attorney representing the agency, the state, or an individual.
Intra-agency or interagency deliberative communications that express opinions or are speculative, created for internal decision-making. This covers materials developed by private contractors working under a government contract.¹

The discretionary label gives you a second line of attack. For a subsection (a) denial, you can only argue the record doesn’t actually fit the category. For a subsection (b) denial, you can argue both that the category doesn’t apply and that the agency’s choice to withhold was arbitrary or capricious.²

A Partial Exemption Does Not Kill the Whole Request

A record that mixes exempt and non-exempt information does not become entirely off-limits. Indiana Code 5-14-3-6 requires the agency to separate the disclosable portions from the protected portions and release what it can.³ In practice, the agency redacts the protected material and provides the rest. A blanket denial of an entire document because part of it is exempt likely violates APRA’s segregation requirement.

What to Do When a Denial Cites 5-14-3-4

The denial letter should identify the specific subsection the agency is relying on. Start by reading that subsection against the actual contents of the record you asked for. If the fit looks wrong, or if the agency denied the whole document when only a portion is exempt, you have a dispute worth pressing.

Indiana does not set a specific deadline for an agency to actually produce records. Instead, the statute creates a presumption of denial when the agency fails to respond on time. For a written request sent by mail, fax, or email, no response within seven days is treated as a denial. For a verbal or hand-delivered request, the window is 24 business hours.⁴ Once a denial exists, whether express or presumed, you can take it to the Public Access Counselor.

Informal Inquiry to the Public Access Counselor

The Office of the Indiana Public Access Counselor (PAC) answers informal questions from the public and agencies by phone, email, fax, or in person about how public access laws apply to a specific situation.⁵ An informal inquiry is often the fastest path. Agencies that receive a PAC response explaining the record should be released will frequently reverse course rather than face a formal complaint.

Formal Complaint

If the informal route doesn’t work, file a formal complaint on the PAC’s prescribed form within 30 days of the denial. The PAC notifies the agency, gives it roughly two weeks to respond in writing, and issues an opinion within 30 days of receiving the complaint.⁴

Priority review cuts the opinion deadline to seven days. You qualify if you intend to file suit, if the complaint concerns a meeting that hasn’t yet happened, or if the records are needed for proceedings before another public agency.⁴

PAC opinions are advisory, not binding. An agency can read the opinion, disagree, and keep the record locked up. The opinion still matters: it carries weight if the case ends up in court, and getting one is a prerequisite to recovering fees and penalties in most records lawsuits.

Suing to Compel Disclosure

If the PAC process doesn’t produce the record, you can sue in the circuit or superior court of the county where the denial occurred. The court reviews the denial de novo, and the burden is on the agency to justify withholding. For a subsection (a) denial, the agency must show with adequate specificity that the record fits a mandatory category; vague assertions of confidentiality are not enough. For a subsection (b) denial, the agency must show the category fits, and you can defeat the denial by proving it was arbitrary or capricious.²

Attorney’s Fees

A court must award reasonable attorney’s fees, court costs, and litigation expenses to the prevailing party. If you substantially prevail, you recover your costs; if the agency prevails and the court finds your suit frivolous, the agency recovers its costs. There is a catch. You are not eligible for a fee award unless you first sought and received an informal inquiry response or advisory opinion from the PAC before filing suit.² Skipping the PAC does not bar the lawsuit, but it does forfeit fee-shifting, which is one of the strongest sources of leverage you have.

Civil Penalties

Indiana Code 5-14-3-9.5 lets courts impose civil penalties on officials who violate APRA:

Only one civil penalty may be imposed per individual per lawsuit, even if that person committed multiple violations in the same dispute. Separate lawsuits can produce separate penalties. As with attorney’s fees, a court can assess civil penalties only if you obtained a PAC advisory opinion before filing suit.²

Law Enforcement Recordings Follow a Separate Track

If your dispute is over a law enforcement recording like body-camera footage, Section 5.1 of the chapter applies, and the PAC prerequisite does not. You can file suit directly, and if you prevail the court can still award attorney’s fees and impose civil penalties without a prior PAC opinion.² For every other category of record exempted under 5-14-3-4, the PAC step is where enforcement begins.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 5-14-3-4 – Records and Recordings Exempted From Disclosure
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 5-14-3-9 – Denial of Disclosure; Action to Compel Disclosure
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 5-14-3-6 – Partially Disclosable Records
4
Office of the Indiana Public Access Counselor. Guide to Filing a Formal Complaint
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 5-14-4-10 – Powers and Duties
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 5-14-3-9.5 – Civil Penalties Imposed on Public Agency