Ohio public records, made plain
Ask Ohio for the record. Keep the file until it comes.
Sunfile writes a clear public records request in a minute, then keeps a private file of every request you sent: how many weekdays you have waited, when to follow up, and the next letter, ready to send.
No account and no email address. You send the letter yourself; Sunfile never contacts an office for you.
Your Request File
Every request, tracked like a parcel.
Each request you log gets a status ladder, a weekday count that keeps going until the records come, and your own follow-up date. Log what happens and the file moves along.
A county sheriff’s office
- SentMon, Oct 5
- AcknowledgedWed, Oct 7
- Partly filled
- Filled
What Ohio law says
The rules that make a request work.
Ohio’s Public Records Act, Ohio Revised Code section 149.43, is short on paperwork and long on promptness. Four of its rules, in plain words:
- No form, no name needed.
An office may not make you say who you are. It may ask for a written request or your identity only after telling you that neither is required.
ORC 149.43(B)(4)-(5) - Promptly, and copies at cost.
Records are to be “promptly prepared,” and copies provided “at cost and within a reasonable period of time.”
ORC 149.43(B)(1) - Too broad? You get to revise it.
An office may deny an ambiguous or overly broad request, but it must give you an opportunity to revise it.
ORC 149.43(B)(2) - A denial comes with reasons.
If any part is denied, the office must explain why, “including legal authority.”
ORC 149.43(B)(3)
How it goes
Write it. Send it yourself. Keep the file.
A letter in a minute
Name the office, describe the records and the dates, pick how you want them. Sunfile writes a polite letter that asks the right questions up front: the cost, the reason for any denial, a chance to narrow it.
You send it, your way
Copy it into an email, paste it into the office’s records portal, or print and mail it. Many offices post a records contact on their website. Sunfile sends nothing and stores nothing from the writer.
A file that keeps count
Log the request in your private Request File. Weekdays waiting, your follow-up date, a dated log and ready follow-up and denial-reply letters, all on one link only you hold.
Pricing
The writer is free. The file is $1.95 a month.
Free
$0
Always free
- The request writer, as often as you like
- The rules and the next-steps guide
- A Request File with up to 3 open requests
- Weekday counts, status ladder and a dated log
Once checkout opens, these stay free.
File Pass
$1.95 a month
or $19.50 a year (two months free)
- Up to 100 requests in a file, all open if you need
- Ready follow-up and reply-to-a-denial letters
- A calendar feed (.ics) of your follow-up dates
- Printable log and CSV export
Free during preview. Checkout is not switched on yet, so nothing can be charged; every file gets the File Pass for now.
Preview. These are the prices Sunfile will charge once payments open (through PayPal). Until then there is no checkout, no card form and no charge, and every Request File has the File Pass features free.
Plainly
What Sunfile is not.
- Not a newspaper and not a news site. It publishes no news.
- Not a law firm. General information, not legal advice.
- Not the Ohio Attorney General, the Court of Claims or any public office.
- Not a messenger. It never sends a request or contacts an office for you.
- Not a directory of offices. You choose whom to ask.
- Not a guarantee. Some records are exempt by law; the office decides first.