A public records request has a legal clock that starts the day it arrives. This guide covers what your log needs to hold so you can meet that clock and show that you did.
Read this first
This guide is about record keeping. Your state's records law decides the deadlines, fees and exemptions, and your town attorney decides how they apply to a given request. Check both before you change how you respond.
The statute summaries below are our reading of each state's text on November 7, 2026, with a link to the text.
What every request log must hold
One row per request, with these fields at least:
- Received: the date and time, and how it came in (email, portal, mail, counter, phone).
- Requester: name and contact details, and any organization they represent. Some states limit who may request, so record what your law asks you to.
- What was asked: the request in the requester's own words, kept as received.
- Due date: calculated from your statute, with the rule you used.
- Extensions: each one, the reason, the date the requester was told and the new due date.
- Fee estimate: the amount, the date sent, any deposit and whether the requester agreed.
- Exemptions cited: the statute section for each record or redaction withheld.
- Released: what went out, when and how.
- Closed: the date and the reason (fulfilled, denied, withdrawn, no records).
A spreadsheet can hold these columns. It can't warn you that a due date is two days out, and it can't keep the emails and files that belong to each row.
Why the clock matters
The deadline is set in statute, and missing it has consequences the law spells out. In Maryland, for example, failing to produce a record within the time limit counts as a denial of the request. Md. Code, General Provisions § 4-203(b)(3).
The clock also decides your workload. A request that needs records from three departments has to start moving the day it arrives, which only happens if someone sees the due date that day.
Count days the way your statute counts them. Some laws use working days or business days, some use calendar days, and holidays change the answer. Your log should calculate the due date with your town's holiday calendar and show it on every open request.
How response deadlines differ by state
Three neighboring examples show how much the rules vary:
- Virginia. A public body must respond "promptly, but in all cases within five working days" of receiving a request. If it says within those five days that it can't practically meet the deadline, it gets seven more work days. If charges are likely to exceed $200, it may ask for a deposit first. Va. Code § 2.2-3704, subsections B and H.
- Maryland. The custodian must grant or deny an application within 30 days. If producing the records will take more than 10 working days, the custodian must say so within 10 working days, with the expected time, an estimated range of fees and the reason for the delay. With the applicant's consent, a time limit may be extended by up to 30 days. Md. Code, General Provisions § 4-203.
- New York. Within five business days of a written request, an agency must provide the record, deny it in writing or acknowledge the request with a reasonable approximate date. If it grants the request but can't fulfill it within twenty business days of the acknowledgment, it must explain why in writing and give a date certain. N.Y. Public Officers Law § 89(3)(a).
Those are three states with three different counting rules and three kinds of extension. Read your own state's statute, and build its rules into the log once so nobody has to remember them.
Keep the correspondence with the request
Every message about a request belongs in its file: the request, the acknowledgment, the fee estimate, questions to clarify the scope, the extension notice and the final response.
That includes messages between departments. When the police department says it has no responsive records, keep that email with the request, so you can show later who searched and when.
If requests arrive at several staff inboxes, give them one address or one form, and forward stray requests into the file the day they arrive. The clock usually starts when anyone at the public body receives the request, so check how your statute words it.
Redaction
For each record you release with redactions, keep three things: the original, the redacted copy as released and a note of the exemption that supports each redaction.
Use a redaction tool that removes the text. A black box drawn over a PDF can leave the words underneath selectable and searchable. Check each released file by searching it for a word you redacted.
Remove hidden content too: document properties, comments, tracked changes and the extra layers a scanner or an editing program may keep.
Keep the request file for its retention period
The request file is a public record itself. Your state archives or records agency publishes retention schedules for local governments, and one of them will cover records requests. Find it and set the retention period in your log.
When the period ends, destroy the file the way your schedule requires and record that you did. A file kept for years past its period is one more thing someone can request.
Reporting
A log that holds the fields above can answer the questions a council, a manager or a reporter will ask:
- How many requests arrived each month, and from which channels.
- How many closed on time, how many were extended and how many are overdue today.
- The median number of days to close.
- Fees estimated and collected.
- Which departments hold the records most often asked for.
That last one is useful. Records asked for again and again are often worth posting on the website, which can reduce the requests.
What to look for in a system
Whatever you use, it should calculate due dates from your statute and holidays, warn staff before a deadline, keep every message and file with the request, record redactions with their exemptions and give the requester a way to submit and receive records.
Ask any vendor how you get the whole log out, with the files, if you leave. The request history is your record and you have to keep it for its retention period.
Where LFW fits
The LFW Platform keeps every request in one queue, counts the due date under the law of 10 states and DC, including Virginia, Maryland, Texas, California and New York, and logs every action. Each requester gets a private link to follow their request. Send a written setup request, and we reply within one business day.
Leland Fiegel