Texas Government Code 552: Requests, Withholding, and Costs

The Texas Public Information Act, codified at Chapter 552 of the Government Code, gives you the right to request records from almost any state or local government body in Texas. You send a written request to the agency’s public information officer, and the agency must either produce the records promptly or, within 10 business days, ask the Attorney General for a ruling on whether an exception lets it withhold them. The statute is interpreted in favor of releasing information, and agencies that ignore the deadlines usually lose the right to keep records secret.¹

What Counts as a Public Record

Section 552.002 defines public information broadly. It covers anything written, produced, collected, or maintained in connection with official business by a governmental body, or by someone on the body’s behalf when the body owns the information, has a right to access it, or spent public money to create it.² Information an officer or employee creates in their official capacity also qualifies, even when it sits on a personal device.

Format does not matter. Paper files, emails, text messages, instant messages, photographs, sound recordings, maps, and video are all covered, and Section 552.002(a-2) makes clear that electronic communications on any device fall within the Act if they relate to official business.² A council member who discusses zoning over a personal email account cannot shield those messages by pointing to the account.

Protected health information, as defined by the Health and Safety Code, is expressly excluded from the definition of public information and is not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552.²

Which Agencies Have to Respond

Section 552.003 covers state boards, commissions, departments, committees, institutions, agencies, and offices in the executive and legislative branches, along with county commissioners courts, municipal governing bodies, and school district boards of trustees. Governing boards of special districts, nonprofit water supply and wastewater corporations, local workforce development boards, and any organization supported in whole or in part by public funds also fall within the definition.³

The judiciary is expressly excluded.³ Requests for court records go through separate rules, not the Public Information Act. Certain economic development entities are also outside the Act if they receive less than $1 million in public funds from a single governmental body per fiscal year and meet additional independence criteria.

How to Send a Request

The request must be in writing. Sections 552.221 and 552.301 refer to a written request throughout, and a phone call or in-person question does not start the Act’s deadlines.⁴ You can send it by email, U.S. mail, or hand-delivery to the office of the public information officer. Many agencies offer forms or online portals, but you are not required to use them.

Be specific. Include dates, names, project titles, or other identifying details that help the agency find the records. The Act only requires production of existing records, so ask for documents rather than posing general questions.

The agency can ask you to clarify an unclear request or to narrow a request that would return a large volume of records. It cannot ask why you want the information. If you do not respond in writing to a clarification request within 61 calendar days, the original request is considered withdrawn.⁵ Track that clock. Missing it means starting over.

What the Agency Must Do and When

Once the agency receives your written request, it must produce the records “promptly,” which the statute defines as “as soon as possible under the circumstances, that is, within a reasonable time, without delay.”⁴ If it cannot produce the records within 10 business days, it must certify that in writing to you and set a date and time when the records will be available. If it has no responsive records at all, it must tell you so in writing within 10 business days.

The 10-business-day mark carries a second, more important function. If the agency wants to withhold anything under an exception in Subchapter C, it must ask the Attorney General for a decision within 10 business days of receiving your request.⁶ Within that same window, the agency must send you a written statement explaining that it wants to withhold information and has asked the AG to rule, along with a copy of its communication to the AG (redacted if that communication itself would reveal the withheld material).

Missing that deadline has real consequences. Under Section 552.302, if the agency fails to timely request an Attorney General decision and notify you, the requested information is presumed public and must be released unless there is a compelling reason to withhold it.⁷ Agencies that sit on requests generally lose the ability to claim most exceptions.

Once the AG rules, the agency must comply with the decision and release the records upon payment of any applicable fees, or seek judicial review.

When an Agency Can Withhold Records

Subchapter C lists dozens of exceptions, and an agency that wants to withhold records must identify the specific exception it is relying on when it asks the Attorney General to rule.⁸ A few come up most often.

Confidential Under Other Law

Section 552.101 is the broadest exception. It covers information deemed confidential by the Texas Constitution, another state or federal statute, or a judicial decision.⁹ Agencies use it to protect Social Security numbers, certain student records covered by federal privacy law, and records shielded by attorney-client privilege. The exception is only as strong as the underlying confidentiality provision, and the agency has to identify the specific law that makes the information confidential.

Pending or Anticipated Litigation

Section 552.103 protects records related to pending or reasonably anticipated litigation involving the state or a political subdivision. Internal legal strategy documents in a lawsuit against a city are not available to the opposing party through a records request. The exception applies only while the litigation threat is real and active.⁸

Law Enforcement Records

Section 552.108 shields certain law enforcement and prosecution information when releasing it would interfere with an active investigation or prosecution. It also covers records from investigations that did not result in a conviction or deferred adjudication, and internal attorney work product for criminal litigation.¹⁰

Basic information about an arrested person, an arrest, or a crime is not protected and must be released promptly, regardless of whether the agency is seeking an AG ruling on other parts of the same request.¹⁰ A police department cannot use 552.108 to withhold the name of someone who was arrested or the basic facts of a crime.

Trade Secrets

Section 552.110 protects trade secrets and certain commercial or financial information, but only when the person claiming the exception shows with specific factual evidence that the information qualifies as a trade secret or that disclosure would cause substantial competitive harm.¹¹ A contractor cannot stamp a document “proprietary” and expect it to stay hidden. The company must show it took reasonable measures to keep the information secret and that the information derives real economic value from not being publicly known.

What It Costs

Agencies can charge for the cost of producing records at rates the Attorney General sets by rule. Paper copies run $0.10 per page. Labor for locating, compiling, and reproducing records is capped at $15 per hour, and programmer time for extracting data is billed at $28.50 per hour.¹²

When the total estimated cost exceeds $40, the agency must give you a written, itemized breakdown of anticipated charges before doing any work.¹³ The final bill cannot exceed the estimate by more than 20 percent unless the agency sends you an updated estimate first. The estimate functions as a ceiling.

For larger requests, the agency can require a deposit or bond before starting work. The threshold is $100 for governmental bodies with more than 15 full-time employees, or $50 for bodies with fewer than 16 employees.¹⁴ If you fail to pay a required deposit within 10 business days, your request is considered withdrawn. An agency can also require payment of outstanding balances from earlier requests before processing a new one when the unpaid amount exceeds $100.

Section 552.275 lets governmental bodies set monthly and yearly caps on how much staff time they will spend on a single requester’s requests without charging for it. The floor for those caps is 36 hours per year and 15 hours per month.¹⁵ Once you exceed the cap, the agency can bill you for the full cost of compliance, including overhead. Each time it fulfills one of your requests, it must send a written statement showing how much personnel time was spent and where you stand against the cumulative limit. Frequent large requests to the same agency bring this provision into play.

What to Do If an Agency Won’t Comply

If a governmental body refuses to ask the Attorney General for a ruling, or refuses to release information the AG has determined is public, you can file a lawsuit seeking a writ of mandamus in the district court for the county where the agency’s main offices are located.¹⁶ The Attorney General can also file suit independently, generally in Travis County. Mandamus is the primary tool for requesters who hit a wall, and you do not have to exhaust administrative remedies first if the agency simply ignored the process.

A public information officer or their agent who fails or refuses to provide access to public information commits a criminal offense under Section 552.353. The standard is criminal negligence, not intent, so even careless disregard for the Act can result in charges. The offense is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $1,000, up to six months in county jail, or both.¹⁷ A violation also constitutes official misconduct, which can trigger separate removal proceedings. Prosecutions under this section are rare, but the threat adds weight to a written demand for compliance.

1
State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOVT 552.001
2
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.002 – Definition of Public Information; Media Containing Public Information
3
State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOVT 552.003 – Definitions
4
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.221 – Application for Public Information; Production of Public Information
5
State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOVT 552.222 – Permissible Inquiry by Governmental Body to Requestor
6
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.301 – Request for Attorney General Decision
7
State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOVT 552.302 – Failure to Make Timely Request for Attorney General Decision
8
Justia. Texas Government Code Chapter 552 – Information Excepted From Required Disclosure
9
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.101 – Exception – Confidential Information
10
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.108 – Exception – Certain Law Enforcement, Corrections, and Prosecutorial Information
11
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.110 – Exception – Confidentiality of Trade Secrets; Confidentiality of Certain Commercial or Financial Information
12
Legal Information Institute. 1 Texas Admin Code 70.3 – Charges for Providing Copies of Public Information
13
State of Texas. Texas Government Code GOVT 552.2615 – Required Itemized Estimate of Charges
14
Texas Public Law. Texas Government Code Section 552.263 – Bond for Payment of Costs or Cash Prepayment for Preparation of Copy of Public Information
15
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.275 – Requests That Require Large Amounts of Employee or Personnel Time
16
State of Texas. Texas Government Code Section 552.321 – Suit for Writ of Mandamus
17
Texas Public Law. Texas Government Code Section 552.353 – Failure or Refusal of Officer for Public Information to Provide Access to or Copying of Public Information