Oregon Public Records Law

Response Timeline

No fixed statutory response deadline. Agencies must respond within a 'reasonable' time. Public Records Advocate can facilitate resolution within 21 days (extendable by parties) (ORS 192.464(7)). For state agencies, failure to comply with AG order within 7 days triggers mandatory attorney fee liability (ORS 192.431(3)).

No residency or citizenship requirement. 'Every person, regardless of nationality or residency' may request records (ORS 192.314(1)).

How to Submit a Request

Accepted Methods

• Written — Written request recommended
• Oral — Oral requests accepted
• In person — May inspect during business hours

No specific form required. Agencies must provide records in requested format if available (ORS 192.324(3)). May require advance payment of estimated costs.

Email or portal?

The law requires a written request but does not specify a channel, so email is a valid way to submit and a portal is not mandatory.

The Oregon Public Records Law conditions a public body's duty to respond on receipt of a written request (ORS 192.324(1)), so no_written_requirement does not fit here the way it does for Virginia or Ohio. Every public body must publish a written procedure naming one or more individuals and addresses to whom requests may be sent (ORS 192.324(7)(a)) -- generic 'addresses', not a named portal -- and the acknowledgment/completion clock runs from receipt 'by an individual identified in the public body's procedure' (ORS 192.329(1)). Nothing in the chapter authorizes a public body to require a specific website, portal, or form as the exclusive channel, and nothing names email the unconditional way Pennsylvania's RTKL does either. Because writing is required but no single channel is either guaranteed by name or permitted to be made exclusive, the law requires writing while leaving the channel open: email is a defensible way to submit, and a public body may not make a portal the only way in, though addressing the request to the individual named in the body's own published procedure is the surest way to start the acknowledgment clock promptly.

• ORS 192.324(1) (written request)
• ORS 192.324(7) (published procedure; named individuals and addresses)
• ORS 192.329(1) (clock runs from receipt by the named individual)

No case identified specifically on the submission-channel question. The verdict rests on the plain text of ORS 192.324(1) and (7), which require writing and a published procedure without naming or mandating a specific channel.

Oregon public bodies vary widely: larger cities, counties, and universities often run a records-request portal (NextRequest is common), while most special districts and smaller cities publish only an email address per their ORS 192.324(7) procedure. Our records data for Oregon lists email, mail, and in-person as accepted methods, consistent with a portal being optional rather than exclusive.

Last reviewed 2026-07-30.

Required Elements

• Description of records sought

Optional Elements

• Preferred format
• Contact information for fee estimates

Fees

Fees must be reasonable with specific supporting data (burden on agency to justify). Cannot charge for attorney time spent determining exemptions. Advance payment permitted. Refunds required for overestimates.

Fee Waivers

• Fee waiver available where disclosure 'primarily benefits the general public' (ORS 192.324(5))
• Agencies with statutorily/constitutionally dedicated funds cannot waive fees

Public interest waiver available. Must be reasonable. Agencies funded by dedicated funds (not general fund) are prohibited from waiving fees.

Exemptions

• Litigation
  Litigation records (ORS 192.345(1)) - conditional, requires public interest balancing
• Trade secrets
  Trade secrets (ORS 192.345(2)) - conditional
• Criminal invest
  Criminal investigatory information (ORS 192.345(3)) - conditional
• Exam materials
  Examination materials (ORS 192.345(4)) - conditional
• Personnel disc
  Personnel discipline records (ORS 192.345(12)) - conditional
• Security
  Security and infrastructure vulnerabilities (ORS 192.345(22)-(23)) - conditional
• Body cameras
  Police body camera recordings (ORS 192.345(40)) - conditional
• Advisory
  Advisory communications (ORS 192.355(1)) - absolute/self-balancing
• Personal privacy
  Personal information and privacy (ORS 192.355(2)) - absolute/self-balancing
• Employee contact
  Employee contact information (ORS 192.355(3)) - absolute/self-balancing

Oregon distinguishes between conditional exemptions (ORS 192.345, requiring public interest balancing) and absolute/self-balancing exemptions (ORS 192.355). Conditional exemptions must be weighed against public interest in disclosure. Exemptions 'strictly construed in favor of disclosure' with narrow construction rule.

Appeal Process

Oregon has a robust multi-tier system: AG review for state agencies, DA review for local bodies, Public Records Advocate for facilitated resolution, and court action. The 7-day compliance trigger for mandatory attorney fees after AG order is a powerful enforcement mechanism unique to Oregon.

Request Templates

Records Retention

ORS 192.105-192.170

View retention law →

Retention schedule catalog →

The State Archivist grants specific or continuing authorization for retention or disposition, considering legal, administrative, fiscal, tribal cultural, historical, and research value. Each state agency and political subdivision must designate a records officer. General Records Retention Schedules are published as Oregon Administrative Rules. Records subject to federal audit may not be destroyed until released by auditor.

Sources & References

• Full text of law →
• Primary source →
• RCFP Open Government Guide — Oregon →
• NFOIC State FOI Resources →

Bodies Covered

Which kinds of public body this law applies to, with the statutory basis for each claim.

Coverage notes

• No requester-standing limit: any person may ask ORS 192.314(1) gives 'every person' the right to inspect a public record, and ORS 192.311 defines 'person' to include any natural person, corporation, partnership, firm, or association -- the same no-limit shape as Ohio's, Georgia's, Arizona's, and Illinois's, not Virginia's citizens-of-the-Commonwealth rule. The statute is silent on residency, not merely permissive of it. ORS 192.314(1) (every person has a right to inspect any public record, subject only to the named exemption statutes)
• Acknowledgment (five business days) is not completion ORS 192.324(2)'s five business days is a real statutory number, but it marks only ACKNOWLEDGMENT (confirming custodianship, denying it, or stating uncertainty) or completion if that happens to be faster. Actual completion runs on the open-ended standard of ORS 192.329(1), 'as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay', with a written status-update duty if the body has not completed within 10 business days of the acknowledgment deadline (ORS 192.329(5)); ORS 192.329(6)-(8) excuses strict compliance where staffing, operational impediments, or request volume make the timeline impracticable. Unlike every prior state, Oregon's tracked statutory number is real but marks only the first stage, not a completion deadline. ORS 192.329(1) (response completed 'as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay'; no fixed number of days)
• Fee waiver 'in the public interest' -- cited without a timeframe The custodian may furnish copies free or at a substantially reduced fee when doing so is in the public interest because release primarily benefits the general public (ORS 192.324(5)); no timeframe attaches to this provision at all, so it is asked for as a request in the fee paragraph, never framed as an entitlement or a deadline. A requester who believes a fee-waiver denial was unreasonable may petition the Attorney General or district attorney the same way as an outright denial of inspection (ORS 192.324(6)). ORS 192.324(5) (custodian may waive or reduce fees when doing so is in the public interest because release primarily benefits the general public)
• Mandatory separation duty and no blanket-exemption policies ORS 192.338 requires a public body to separate exempt and nonexempt material and make the nonexempt material available -- 'shall', a mandatory duty, the VA/OH/GA shape, not Illinois's discretionary 'may elect to redact'. Guard Publishing v. Lane County School District forbids a category-wide policy of exemption without an individualized showing for each record. A complete response must also assert any exemption relied on and, for a 192.355(8)-(9) claim, name the state or federal law behind it (ORS 192.329(2)). ORS 192.338 (public body shall separate exempt and nonexempt material and make the nonexempt material available) · Guard Publishing Co. v. Lane County School District No. 4J, 310 Or 32, 791 P2d 854 (1990)
• Review splits on whether the body is a state agency: Attorney General vs. district attorney A denied requester petitions the ATTORNEY GENERAL for a STATE agency's denial (ORS 192.411): the AG must rule within seven days, and the agency must comply within seven days of an order or notice intent to seek relief in Marion County Circuit Court within that window. For every OTHER public body -- counties, cities, districts, and the rest of local government -- the SAME procedure runs instead through the DISTRICT ATTORNEY of the county where the body is located (ORS 192.415), who may represent the body only if already its counsel. This state/local review split is not cited in the initial letter; it belongs to the follow-up and appeal play. ORS 192.411 (petition the Attorney General to review a state agency's denial; 7-day order; 7-day agency compliance or notice of court proceedings)
• Public Records Advocate: a free, non-binding-unless-agreed mediation path The Public Records Advocate is an independent office within the executive department, appointed by the Public Records Advisory Council (ORS 192.461), and offers facilitated dispute resolution (ORS 192.464) to a requester denied access, denied a fee waiver, or given a fee estimate the requester believes exceeds actual cost, against a state agency (or, by mutual agreement, a city). The resolution period is 21 days from receipt, extendable by unanimous agreement; if the parties reach one, a written agreement controls, but the process is not automatically binding otherwise. No prior registered state has this structure; this loader found no 15-business-day fee-estimate/closure mechanic in the current codification -- see the module docstring. ORS 192.461 (Public Records Advocate: independent office; appointed by the Public Records Advisory Council)
• Written request required, but no channel is named or made exclusive ORS 192.324(1) conditions the duty to respond on receipt of a written request -- a real writing requirement, the IL/PA shape, not VA/OH's no-writing-required one. Every public body publishes a procedure naming one or more individuals and addresses to whom requests may be sent (ORS 192.324(7)(a)), and the acknowledgment/completion clock is tied to receipt by that named individual (ORS 192.329(1)), so discovery should prefer the named contact where published. Nothing in the text authorizes a public body to require a specific portal, website, or form as the exclusive channel, and nothing names email the unconditional way Pennsylvania's § 703 does either. ORS 192.324(1) (public body's duty runs on receipt of a written request)
• Court records run through the general law, with two narrow limits Unlike Virginia's or Illinois's court carve-outs, ORS 192.311's 'custodian' definition folds in the ORS 7.110 court-records custodian (the clerk or court administrator), so a court's own records, including its log of records requests received, run through the general Public Records Law. Two real limits remain: the Uniform Trial Court Rules (UTCR 2.110) separately govern redaction of personal identifiers within case files, and ORS 7.095 bars disclosure of electronically maintained court records until 'reviewed and accepted by the court' -- a narrow data-integrity gate on in-process electronic records, not a broad exemption. ORS 7.110 (clerk or court administrator is custodian of the court's records)
• Private contractors and foundations: the Marks functional-equivalent test A private or quasi-private entity is a public body only on a multi-factor, case-by-case showing: the entity's origin, the nature of its function, the scope of its authority, the level of government financing, the level of government control, and whether its officers and employees are also government officials or employees (Marks v. McKenzie High School Fact-Finding Team). Government funding alone does not convert a private entity into a public body. ORS 192.311 (definitions: 'public body', 'custodian' -- including the ORS 7.110 court-records custodian -- 'person', and 'public record') · Marks v. McKenzie High School Fact-Finding Team, 319 Or 451, 878 P2d 417 (1994)