ORS 192.324: Oregon Public Records Requests, Fees, and Appeals

To make an Oregon public records request, send a written request to the records officer of the state or local agency that holds the documents. Under ORS 192.324, that agency has five business days to acknowledge your request and roughly ten more to complete its response or give you a written estimate of when it will.¹ If the agency denies the request, delays unreasonably, or quotes an unreasonable fee, you can petition the Attorney General or your local district attorney to force a response.

The law reaches almost every government entity in the state: state agencies, counties, cities, school districts, special districts, and the boards and departments within them.² A public record is any writing about public business that the agency prepared, owns, uses, or keeps, in any format, from paper files to emails to database exports.

How to Submit the Request

Put it in writing. ORS 192.324(1) conditions your right to inspect or copy on receipt of a written request, and the response clock does not start until that writing reaches the person the agency has designated to receive records requests.¹ A phone call does not count.

Most agencies list their records request procedure and the name of their records officer on their website. Some run online portals that generate a tracking number. Email and certified mail both work and both leave proof of the delivery date, which is the date every statutory deadline runs from.

Be specific. Include the date range you want, the names of any people or facilities involved, the type of document (emails, inspection reports, contracts), and your preferred delivery format. If the record exists electronically and you ask for it electronically, the agency must provide it that way; if your preferred format is not available, it provides the record in the format it normally keeps.¹ Vague requests invite high cost estimates and long delays. “All records about pollution” produces one kind of answer. “Inspection reports for the Cedar Creek facility from January through June 2025” produces another.

What Deadlines Apply to the Agency

Oregon’s law builds the timeline in two stages.

Within five business days of receiving your written request, the agency must do one of three things under ORS 192.324(2): confirm it holds the records, tell you it does not, or notify you that it is uncertain.¹ If it can fully respond in those five days, it can skip the acknowledgment and simply produce the records.

Then, under ORS 192.329(5), the agency has ten more business days after the acknowledgment deadline to either complete its response or send a written statement that it is still working, along with a reasonable estimated completion date.³ That is about fifteen business days before the agency must have either produced the records or committed in writing to a timeline.

A “completed response” is more than a stack of paper. Under ORS 192.329(2), the agency must also identify any exemptions it is claiming, separate exempt from nonexempt material, tell you if certain requested records do not exist, and inform you of your right to seek review of any denial.³ A delivery that ignores what was withheld has not completed the response.

What You May Be Charged

Agencies may charge fees, but only to recover their actual cost of making the records available. That can include staff time spent searching, compiling, and tailoring records, and attorney time spent redacting exempt material. It cannot include attorney time spent deciding whether the law requires disclosure, because that legal analysis is the agency’s own obligation, not a service to you.¹

If the estimated fee will exceed $25, the agency must notify you in writing before doing the work and pause until you confirm you want to proceed. If you don’t respond to the fee notice within 60 days, the agency can close the request.³ If the cost is higher than you expected, narrowing the request is almost always a better move than abandoning it.

The records custodian has discretion to waive or substantially reduce fees when disclosure primarily benefits the general public rather than your private interest. Journalists and nonprofits often qualify, though the statute does not grant them an automatic waiver. If an agency unreasonably denies a waiver, you can petition the Attorney General or district attorney the same way you would challenge a denial of the records themselves.¹

When Records Can Be Withheld or Redacted

Not every record in a government file is public. Oregon law contains two kinds of exemptions: conditional exemptions under ORS 192.345, where the agency weighs the sensitivity of the record against the public interest, and categorical exemptions under ORS 192.355, which include personal information in personnel or medical files, attorney-client privileged material, and others.⁴ Additional exemptions scattered through other state and federal laws can also apply. When an agency relies on any exemption, it must identify the specific law.³ “It’s confidential” is not a valid denial.

An exemption that covers part of a document does not cover the whole document. ORS 192.338 requires the agency to separate exempt from nonexempt material and release the nonexempt portion.⁵ In practice, you receive a redacted copy with blacked-out sections. Over-redaction is one of the most common complaints, and you can challenge it through the same petition process that applies to a flat denial.

If the Agency Denies, Delays, or Overcharges

Oregon gives you a clear path to push back. The route depends on which kind of agency holds the records.

State Agencies

If a state agency denies your request, petition the Attorney General. The AG must issue an order within seven days, and the burden is on the agency to justify withholding the record.⁶ If the AG orders disclosure and the agency refuses, the agency has seven days to seek injunctive or declaratory relief in Marion County Circuit Court. Otherwise it must comply.

Cities, Counties, and Other Local Bodies

For records held by cities, counties, school districts, special districts, and other non-state public bodies, petition the district attorney of the county where the agency is located. The DA plays the same role the AG plays for state agencies.⁷ A resulting lawsuit is filed in that county’s circuit court.

Delays and Missed Deadlines

You do not need an outright denial to file a petition. Under ORS 192.407, you can petition when the agency misses a deadline, when its estimated completion date is unreasonably long, or when it otherwise fails to comply with the response requirements.⁸ A missed deadline is treated as a denial unless the agency can show compliance was not required.

If the AG, DA, or a court finds the agency caused undue delay or failed to respond, the order can require a $200 penalty, a fee waiver or reduction, and a new disclosure deadline as short as seven days.⁸ The penalty itself is modest. The leverage is not: agencies that know a requester will petition tend to find the records faster.

Federal Records Are a Separate System

ORS 192.324 applies only to Oregon state and local bodies. If the record you want is held by a federal agency, you use the federal Freedom of Information Act, which has its own 20-business-day initial response window, its own fee rules, and its own exemptions.⁹ The test is simple: federal executive branch means FOIA; Oregon state or local means ORS 192.324 and its companion statutes.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 192.324 – Copies or Inspection of Public Records; Public Body Response; Fees; Procedure for Records Requests
2
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 192.311 – Definitions for ORS 192.311 to 192.478
3
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 192.329 – Public Body’s Response to Public Records Request
4
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 192.355 – Public Records Exempt from Disclosure
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 192.338 – Exempt and Nonexempt Public Record to Be Separated
6
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 192.411 – Petition to Review Denial of Right to Inspect State Public Record; Appeal From Decision of Attorney General Denying Inspection
7
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 192 – Records; Public Reports and Meetings
8
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 192.407 – When Petition for Review of Public Records Request Allowed
9
Oregon Department of Justice. Petition for Public Records Order