Idaho

Definition of Public Record

All records are presumed to be open records. ¹

Exemptions to Public Records

Exemptions include court records that would result in the release of confidentiality, law enforcement investigations, juvenile records, voting records of the sexual offender classification board, records concerning discrimination investigations, workers compensation records, prisoner records, current and former public employees, income tax information, hospital and medical care records, Idaho Housing and FInance Association, voter registration cards, records in the address confidentiality program, trade secrets including academic research, archaeological records and endangered species locations, draft legislation records, underwriting and claims records of the Idaho petroleum clean water trust fund, or judicial authorization of abortions for minors. ²

Who Can Make The Request?

Anyone

Response Timeframe

3 days. ³

Information on Fees

An agency may charge a fee not exceeding the actual labor costs if a request is for more than 100 pages of documents, if private information must be deleted from requested records, or the locating and copying of documents takes more than two hours. Copying fees may not exceed the actual cost of that agency copying a record. A fee that is stipulated by law must be uniform to all persons can be imposed for copying electronic records on a computer disk, tapes or microfilm. Again this fee cannot exceed the direct cost of labor for the agency, or the cost of a third party to convert the record. ⁴

Enforcement Mechanisms

The act provides that the “sole remedy for a person aggrieved by the denial of a request for disclosure is to institute proceedings in the district court of the county where the records or some part thereof are located.” Idaho Code § 74-115(1). Thus, the act is enforced through private enforcement. ⁵

Attorney Fees

Yes, if the courts find that the request was handled improperly then one can win attorney’s fees. ⁶