Guides
General information about Utah law. Not legal advice.
Making a records request
Where a request goes, what the statute requires it to contain, and what is worth asking for up front.
Use the Open Records Portal
The portal routes a request to the right records officer, which is usually faster than guessing at an address.
Requirements
A request must be in writing and must give a name, mailing address, and daytime telephone number if there is one, together with a description of the record that identifies it with reasonable specificity.
Specificity is where many requests fail. Government keeps records in series, and the retention schedules published by State Archives describe what each series contains. Naming a series, a date range, and the office that holds it will get a request further than describing a subject.
Utah Code § 63G-2-204Things worth asking for in a request
These are permitted by statute and easier to claim at the outset than to add later:
- A fee waiver under Section 63G-2-203, where releasing the record primarily benefits the public rather than the requester, where the requester is the subject of the record, or on the other grounds the section lists.
- An expedited response where the record is sought by a member of the news media for a story on a matter of current public interest.
- Segregation under Section 63G-2-308, so that if part of a record is protected the rest is produced with the exempt portion redacted rather than the whole thing withheld.