If it stalls
Slow, silent or denied: the steps the statutes name.
Most requests are filled without a fight. When one is not, these are the options Ohio’s statutes describe, from the gentlest. General information, not legal advice: for a dispute that matters, read the statute and consider a lawyer.
Ask again, politely, and put it in writing.
Records are to be “promptly prepared” and copies provided “within a reasonable period of time” ORC 149.43(B)(1). A short follow-up that names your request, its date and their reference number often moves it along. A Request File writes this letter for you and counts the weekdays since your last contact.
Offer to narrow it.
If the office says the request is ambiguous or too broad, the statute gives you an opportunity to revise it, and the office explains how its records are kept ORC 149.43(B)(2). A date range, a subject or named people usually does it.
Ask for the reason and the legal authority.
A denial, in part or in whole, comes with “an explanation, including legal authority” ORC 149.43(B)(3), and redactions are shown or explained ORC 149.43(B)(1). If you did not get one, ask for it. The Request File’s reply-to-a-denial letter does this.
Read the Attorney General’s guide.
The Ohio Attorney General publishes the Ohio Sunshine Laws guide and training, which explain the Public Records Act in detail.
Serve a complaint on the office, then wait three business days.
A person aggrieved by a failure to comply with the Act “may serve pursuant to Rule 4 of the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure a complaint” on the office, on a form prescribed by the clerk of the Court of Claims. Rule 4 is formal service (for example, by certified mail sent through a clerk); an ordinary email of the form is not Rule 4 service. The Court of Claims form instructions explain how. The office then “has three business days to cure or otherwise address the failure,” and no court case may be filed during those three days ORC 149.43(C)(1).
Then one route to a court, not both.
After the three days, the statute allows “only one of the following, and not both” ORC 149.43(C)(1): a complaint with the clerk of the Court of Claims or of the county court of common pleas under ORC 2743.75, with the original request and any written responses attached and a filing fee of $25, which is first referred to mediation unless the special master decides it should not be; or a mandamus action in a court the statute names. Either way, a written affirmation goes with the filing, stating that you “properly transmitted” the complaint to the office at least three business days earlier and that the failure has not been cured; without it the suit is dismissed ORC 149.43(C)(2).
See the Ohio Court of Claims for its forms and instructions. Sunfile does not file or serve anything and cannot tell you whether you have a case.
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