A Can the city legally refuse to fulfill my request unless I use their form?

Answer

I am sorry to hear that the City will not provide a response to your email PRA request.  The City cannot require you use a specific form to create a public records request—the PRA simply sets out the government’s duty to provide access to records.  In fact, records requests are not even statutory required to be in writing (however, we recommend written requests, because they result in written responses).

That being said, many cities and agencies have forms they request be used, and many times, it can be more efficient to use those forms, since they are more familiar to the agency personnel processing the requests.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found any law pertaining to the use of specific forms.  The PRA states, “upon a request for a copy of records, [the City] shall, within 10 days from receipt of the request, determine whether the request, in whole or in part, seeks copies of disclosable public records in the possession of the agency and shall promptly notify the person making the request of the determination and the reasons therefor.”  Gov’t Code § 6253(c).  “When the [City] dispatches the determination, and if the [City] determines that the request seeks disclosable public records, the agency shall state the estimated date and time when the records will be made available.”  Id.

Additionally, the City has the duty to assist you in making a focused and effective request that reasonably describes identifiable records.  Id. at § 6253.1.  If the City refuses to provide records under the Act, the ultimate recourse is filing a lawsuit, and attorneys’ fees are available to a plaintiff who prevails in litigation filed pursuant to the Act.  Id. at § 6259(d)

If using the specific form will expedite the processing of your request, you may consider filling it out.  However, if that is not the case, or if you are opposed to doing so, the City cannot require you to.  You might want to send a friendly follow-up letter to the City, reminding them of the time limits within which they are required to respond to your request, and that attorneys’ fees are available should you be required to bring a lawsuit to enforce your rights under the Act.

Bryan Cave LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to First Amendment Coalition hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation.