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Records & Expungement
RSMo 610.023effective 28 Aug 2004

Records of governmental bodies to be in care of custodian, duties

In plain English

Every government office in Missouri must have a person in charge of keeping its records, called a custodian. Anyone can look at or copy public records, but original records cannot be taken out of the office without written permission. When someone asks to see records, the office has to respond within three business days. If the office says no, it has to give a written reason within three business days of being asked why.

Word-for-word law

610.023. s of governmental bodies to be in care of , duties — records may be copied but not , , procedure — of access, procedure. — 1. Each is to appoint a custodian who is to be responsible for the of that body's records. The id and location of a public governmental body's custodian is to be made available upon request.

2. Each public governmental body shall make available for inspection and copying by the public of that body's s. No person shall remove original public records from the office of a public governmental body or its custodian without written permission of the custodian. No public governmental body shall, after August 28, 1998, to any person or entity, whether by contract, or otherwise, the right to access and any public record unless the granting of such right is necessary to facilitate coordination with, or uniformity among, industry regulators having similar .

3. Each request for access to a public record shall be acted upon as soon as possible, but in no event later than the end of the third following the date the request is received by the of a public governmental body. If records are requested in a certain format, the shall provide the records in the requested format, if such format is available. If access to the public record is not granted immediately, the custodian shall give a detailed explanation of the cause for further delay and the place and earliest time and date that the record will be available for inspection. This period for document production may exceed three days for reasonable cause.

4. If a request for access is denied, the custodian shall provide, upon request, a written statement of the grounds for such denial. Such statement shall cite the specific of law under which access is denied and shall be furnished to the requester no later than the end of the third business day following the date that the request for the statement is received.

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Source & history notes

(L. 1987 S.B. 2, A.L. 1998 H.B. 1095, A.L. 2004 S.B. 1020, et al.)

View official source

Legal information, not legal advice. Always confirm with the official source at revisor.mo.gov.

RSMo 610.023: Records of governmental bodies to be in care of custodian, duties | KnowMo Laws