Massachusetts Public Records Law: Requests, Fees, and Appeals

To file a Massachusetts public records request, send a written request to the Records Access Officer (RAO) at the state agency or municipality that holds the records you want. You don’t have to say why you want them. The agency has 10 business days to respond, and the law caps what it can charge you for copies and staff time.

Find the Right Records Access Officer

Every state agency and every municipality in Massachusetts must designate at least one RAO to handle requests. Their contact information has to be posted at the entity’s offices and on its website.¹ Start with the agency most likely to hold what you’re after. If they don’t have it, they’re required to identify who might.

Massachusetts also runs a central portal through Mass.gov where you can pick the organization and submit your request online.¹ That’s often the fastest way to reach the correct RAO without having to track down an email address.

How to Write and Submit the Request

You can deliver a request by hand, by first class mail, or by email to the address the agency has posted.² Oral requests are allowed, but a written request creates the paper trail you’ll need if you ever have to appeal.

Describe the records specifically enough that the RAO can find them with reasonable effort. Dates, names, project titles, meeting references, and document types all help. A vague request slows everything down and gives the agency room to come back asking for clarification.

You do not have to explain why you want the records. The RAO can ask about your purpose only to determine whether the request is commercial or whether you qualify for a fee waiver.³ Access itself is never conditional on your reason.

You can also ask for records in electronic form. Agencies are required to deliver electronically unless the record isn’t available in digital format or you can’t receive it that way.¹

What Happens in the First 10 Business Days

Within 10 business days of receiving your request, the agency must either produce the records or send a written response.² A compliant written response confirms receipt, estimates any fees, identifies any records the agency intends to withhold along with the specific exemption it’s claiming, and gives a production timeline that cannot exceed 25 business days from the original request.

If the request is unusually large or complex, the RAO can petition the Supervisor of Records for a single extension within 20 business days of your request, with a copy to you. State agencies can get up to 20 additional business days; municipalities can get up to 30.² The Supervisor must rule on the petition within 5 business days.

One consequence worth knowing before you file: if the agency misses the 10-business-day deadline entirely, it forfeits the right to charge you any fees for the request.

What It Can Cost You

The law caps fees, and the 2016 reform tightened them considerably.

Paper copies cannot exceed $0.05 per page for black and white reproductions.³
Search and redaction labor must be billed at the hourly rate of the lowest-paid employee capable of doing the work. For municipalities, the rate is capped at $25 per hour, though a municipal RAO can petition the Supervisor of Records for permission to charge more.³
In municipalities with a population of 20,000 or more, the first two hours of employee time spent searching, compiling, or redacting records cannot be charged to you.
For electronic delivery, the agency can charge the actual cost of a storage device if one is needed. Email delivery itself should cost nothing beyond any applicable labor charges.

What the Agency Can Withhold

Not everything in government custody is open for inspection. Chapter 4, Section 7, Clause Twenty-sixth lists exemptions, labeled (a) through (x), that allow an agency to withhold or redact certain information.⁴ These exemptions are interpreted narrowly, and the burden is on the agency to prove a record qualifies. The ones you’ll see cited most often cover:

Personal privacy, including personnel and medical files whose disclosure would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
Investigatory materials compiled for law enforcement purposes, especially where release could interfere with an active case, reveal a confidential source, or endanger someone’s safety.
Trade secrets and confidential commercial or financial information submitted to the government by private entities.
Internal memoranda and policy drafts reflecting the deliberative process of government decision-making.
Personal identifying information of individuals involved in providing reproductive or gender-affirming health care services, under the exemption effective November 2025.⁴

An agency cannot withhold an entire document because part of it is exempt. The law requires production of any “segregable portion” after the exempt material has been redacted.² If you get a page back with half the text blacked out, that’s segregability at work.

When records are withheld, the written response must cite the specific lettered exemption and explain how it applies.² A general claim that records are “confidential” is not enough. That specificity gives you something concrete to challenge.

If You’re Denied, Ignored, or Overcharged

Your first stop is the Supervisor of Records, an office within the Secretary of the Commonwealth. You can appeal a denial, a non-response, or a fee you think is excessive. The petition must be filed within 90 calendar days of the agency’s response, or within 90 calendar days of your original request if the agency never responded.⁵

The Supervisor has to issue a written determination within 10 business days of receiving the petition.⁵ If the Supervisor finds a violation, the order will direct the agency to produce the records within a specific timeframe. The process is free, relatively fast, and doesn’t require a lawyer, which makes it the practical first step for most people.

Going to Superior Court

You are not required to exhaust the administrative appeal before going to court. Under Chapter 66, Section 10A, you can file a civil action directly. State agency disputes go to Suffolk Superior Court; municipal disputes go to the Superior Court in the county where the municipality is located.⁶

The court reviews the agency’s decision without deference. There’s a presumption that each record you asked for is public, and the agency must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a record falls within a specific exemption. The judge can also review the disputed records privately to decide whether the claimed exemption actually applies.⁶

Attorney Fees

If you obtain relief through a court order, consent decree, or even production of the records after you file suit, the court can award you reasonable attorney fees and costs. There is a presumption in favor of awarding fees unless the agency can show a narrow exception, such as that the Supervisor of Records previously found no violation, that the agency reasonably relied on a published appellate opinion, or that the request was commercially motivated and not in the public interest.⁶ If the court denies fees, it has to issue written findings explaining why.

Punitive Damages

If the court finds that an agency withheld records, delayed them, or charged unreasonable fees without good faith, it can impose punitive damages between $1,000 and $5,000.⁶ The agency also forfeits any fees it would have charged.

1
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Updated Public Records Law, Chapter 121 of the Acts of 2016
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part I, Title X, Chapter 66, Section 10
3
Legal Information Institute. 950 CMR 32.06 – Rights of Access
4
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part I, Title I, Chapter 4, Section 7
5
Legal Information Institute. 950 CMR 32.08 – Appeals
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Part I, Title X, Chapter 66, Section 10A