Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law: How to Request Public Records

Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law, 65 P.S. §§ 67.101 et seq., is the state law that lets you request records from Pennsylvania state agencies, counties, townships, boroughs, cities, school districts and authorities. It is usually shortened to the RTKL, and it is a genuinely different animal from the 1957 law it replaced in 2008: under the current Act, a public record is presumed accessible and the agency carries the burden of justifying a withholding.

The feature worth knowing before you file anything is the appeal route. Pennsylvania created the Office of Open Records, an independent agency that decides records appeals. Most states send a denied requester straight to court. Pennsylvania gives you a free administrative appeal first, decided by an appeals officer, with a written Final Determination that binds the agency.

The catch is the deadline. Miss it and the free route closes.

For the rest of the country, start at the public records laws by state hub.

Who can file a Right-to-Know request in Pennsylvania?

The Act's definitional section is precise about this, and it is worth quoting because it is often described loosely:

"'Requester.' A person that is a legal resident of the United States and requests a record pursuant to this act. The term includes an agency."

So Pennsylvania does not limit access to Pennsylvania residents, unlike Tennessee or Virginia. But it is not a pure "any person" state either. The statutory right runs to legal residents of the United States. A requester outside the United States is outside the Act's definition, though agencies often answer such requests anyway as a matter of practice.

You do not have to give a reason. Section 703 says a written request "need not include any explanation of the requester's reason for requesting or intended use of the records unless otherwise required by law." Section 702 goes further and allows agencies to fulfill verbal and even anonymous requests, with an important caveat: if you want to use the Act's appeal and enforcement machinery, the request has to be written.

That caveat is the practical rule. Always write it down. A phone call to the township office is not something the Office of Open Records can review.

Pennsylvania Right-to-Know deadlines

Two clocks matter, and they run one after the other.

The agency's 5 business days. Section 901 requires an agency to make a good faith effort to determine whether the record is a public, legislative or financial record and whether the agency has possession, custody or control of it, and to respond as promptly as possible. It then sets the outer limit: "The time for response shall not exceed five business days from the date the written request is received by the open-records officer for an agency. If the agency fails to send the response within five business days of receipt of the written request for access, the written request for access shall be deemed denied."

A deemed denial is a real denial. Silence does not extend your rights; it starts your appeal clock.

The 30 day extension. Section 902 lets the open-records officer extend, but only by sending you written notice within those same 5 business days, and only for one of seven listed reasons: redaction is required, the record is in remote storage, bona fide staffing limitations, legal review is needed, you have not complied with agency access policies, you refuse to pay authorized fees, or the extent or nature of the request precludes a timely response. The notice has to say why, give a reasonable expected response date, and estimate the fees. If that expected date is more than 30 days after the initial 5 business days, the request is deemed denied unless you agree in writing to the longer period.

Your 15 business days. Section 1101(a)(1) is the differentiator:

"If a written request for access to a record is denied or deemed denied, the requester may file an appeal with the Office of Open Records or judicial, legislative or other appeals officer designated under section 503(d) within 15 business days of the mailing date of the agency's response or within 15 business days of a deemed denial."

Calendar the 15 business days the moment a denial arrives, and calendar it from the mailing date rather than the date you happened to open the envelope.

What the Office of Open Records actually does

The OOR assigns an appeals officer to review agency denials for Commonwealth and local agencies. That is Section 503(a), and it carries an exception written into its opening words: the OOR handles those agencies "[e]xcept as provided in subsection (d)." Several routes sit outside the OOR entirely. Under Section 503(b) a judicial agency designates its own appeals officer. Under Section 503(c) the Legislative Reference Bureau designates one for legislative agencies generally, while the Senate and the House of Representatives each designate their own. Under Section 503(d)(1) the Attorney General, State Treasurer and Auditor General each designate an appeals officer.

The exception that catches ordinary requesters is criminal investigative records. Section 503(d)(2) provides that "the district attorney of a county shall designate one or more appeals officers to hear appeals under Chapter 11 relating to access to criminal investigative records in possession of a local agency of that county," and that this officer "shall determine if the record requested is a criminal investigative record." So when a municipal or county police department denies an investigative file, the appeal goes to that county district attorney's appeals officer rather than to the Office of Open Records. Appealing to the OOR instead means filing in the wrong forum, and the 15 business day clock keeps running while you do it.

Filing costs nothing. There is no filing fee, no requirement to be represented, and the appeal itself is short: state the grounds on which you assert the record is a public, legislative or financial record, and address the grounds the agency gave for delaying or denying. The OOR publishes a standard appeal form and accepts filings by email.

The appeals officer must issue a Final Determination within 30 days of receiving the appeal unless you agree otherwise, and if that deadline passes with no decision the appeal is deemed denied. The determination is a final order and comes with a written explanation. A hearing may be held but usually is not; most appeals are decided on the written record.

Two more provisions shape how much leverage the appeal gives you. The agency bears the burden of proving that a record is exempt. And the Final Determination is enforceable, with the court route above it rather than around it.

Fees under the Right-to-Know Law

Section 1307 sets the framework, and the framework is more useful than any single number because Pennsylvania sets the actual rates by schedule rather than by statute.

• Duplication rates are set by the Office of Open Records for both Commonwealth agencies and local agencies, by each judicial agency for itself, and by each legislative agency for itself. The fees must be reasonable and based on prevailing fees for comparable duplication services provided by local businesses, and local agency fees may reflect regional price differences.
• Postage may not exceed the actual cost of mailing.
• No review fee. Section 1307(g) is explicit: "No fee may be imposed for an agency's review of a record to determine whether the record is a public record, legislative record or financial record subject to access in accordance with this act." An agency that bills you for the time its solicitor spent deciding what to redact is charging something the statute forbids.
• Electronic records. If a record is kept only electronically, duplication fees are limited to the lesser of the paper rate or the rate for the original medium, unless you specifically ask for the more expensive format.
• Prepayment. An agency may require prepayment of an estimate if the fees are expected to exceed 100 dollars.
• Waiver. Section 1307(f) allows an agency to waive duplication fees, including where you duplicate the record yourself or where the agency deems it in the public interest to do so. It is permissive, not mandatory, so ask in the request and give a reason.

The current per page duplication rate is set by the OOR's official fee schedule rather than by the statute, so check the schedule published at the Office of Open Records rather than relying on a figure quoted secondhand. As of August 2026 we have not independently verified a current per page number and are not going to state one.

Police records and body camera video

Pennsylvania handles body worn camera footage outside the Right-to-Know Law. Requests for audio and video recordings made by law enforcement run through a separate statutory scheme in Title 42 of the Consolidated Statutes rather than through the RTKL and the Office of Open Records, with its own request form, its own deadline structure, and a court petition route rather than an OOR appeal.

That distinction matters practically: filing an RTKL request for body camera footage, and then appealing to the OOR when it is refused, can burn weeks on the wrong track. Ask the agency which process applies before you file, and be aware that the separate scheme was not re-verified for this page.

Ordinary police paperwork is different again. Criminal investigative records carry a specific RTKL exemption, while blotter-type information and certain incident data are more commonly released. And if a local police department denies you an investigative record, note where the appeal goes: under Section 503(d)(2) the county district attorney's designated appeals officer hears that appeal, not the Office of Open Records, and that officer decides whether the record is in fact a criminal investigative record. Emergency call audio raises its own set of questions, covered in are 911 calls public records.

How to file a Pennsylvania Right-to-Know request

1. Find the agency's open-records officer. Section 502 requires every agency to designate one, and Section 703 requires the written request to be addressed to that officer. Most Pennsylvania agencies publish the name and email on their website. Employees who receive a request are directed to forward it to the open-records officer.
2. Use writing, and keep the date. Section 703 allows in person, mail, email, fax, and other electronic means to the extent agency rules allow.
3. Describe the records with enough specificity for the agency to identify what you want, and include the name and address the response should go to. Both are in Section 703.
4. Consider the OOR's standard request form. It is not mandatory, but agencies recognize it and it captures the required elements.
5. Do not explain your purpose. You are not required to, and volunteering a purpose occasionally invites an argument about commercial use of data sets.
6. Diary two dates: day 5 business days out, when a response or an extension notice is due, and day 15 business days after any denial, when your appeal is due.

You can generate a written request with the right Pennsylvania statutory language using our free public records request generator. It runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is saved or transmitted.

Denials, appeals, and court

Work the ladder in order.

Step 1, read the denial. Section 903 requires a written denial to describe the record requested, give the specific reasons including a citation of supporting legal authority, identify the open-records officer by name, title, business address, telephone number and signature, give the date, and state the appeal procedure. A denial missing those elements is itself worth raising on appeal.

Step 2, appeal to the Office of Open Records within 15 business days. Free, no lawyer, decided in 30 days.

Step 3, go to court within 30 days of the Final Determination. Which court depends on the agency, and this trips people up. Under Section 1301, decisions involving Commonwealth agencies, legislative agencies and judicial agencies go to the Commonwealth Court. Under Section 1302, decisions involving local agencies go to the court of common pleas for the county where the agency is located. A petition for review stays the release of documents until the court rules on either track: Sections 1301(b) and 1302(b) are worded identically, each providing that "[a] petition for review under this section shall stay the release of documents until a decision under subsection (a) is issued."

Fees and penalties. Section 1304 allows a court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs of litigation, or a portion of them, in defined circumstances, and Section 1305 provides for a civil penalty against an agency that denies access in bad faith. Those provisions are the reason an agency's solicitor takes an OOR appeal seriously.

For records outside the RTKL, use the right system instead: Pennsylvania death certificates run through the state's vital records office with eligibility limits, covered in Pennsylvania death records, and deeds sit with the county recorder, covered in Pennsylvania property records.

This article is general legal information about Pennsylvania law as of August 2026, not legal advice. The statutory language quoted here was read from the Pennsylvania General Assembly's official text of Act 3 of 2008. Current per page duplication rates set by the Office of Open Records, and Pennsylvania's separate body camera scheme in Title 42, were not independently verified for this page. For advice about your own situation, speak with a lawyer licensed in Pennsylvania.

For deadlines, fees, and appeal routes in the other fifty jurisdictions, start at our public records laws by state hub. For records held by a federal agency, see how to file a FOIA request.