Public records by state · Georgia
Georgia Open Records Act: the three day clock, capped fees, mandatory redaction
The Open Records Act is O.C.G.A. 50-18-70 through 50-18-77: respond within three business days, bill search and redaction only at a capped hourly rate after a free first quarter hour, and redact a statutory list of personal data before anything goes out.
Request volume keeps climbing. AI-generated requests, social media, and reporters add to the queue, and records staff does not grow with it. In most offices review still happens one page at a time in Adobe, by one or two people, and the requests now pull in text threads and whole email exports. Georgia adds two pressures of its own: the reviewing hours may only be billed at the lowest paid qualified employee's rate, and a list of personal data must come out of every release, by order of the statute.
RESPOND
3 business days
Produce, or describe with a timeline, within three business days. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b).
Fees
What an agency may charge. Capped hours, a free quarter, dime copies.
Charging is allowed, not required. An agency "may impose a reasonable charge for the search, retrieval, redaction, and production or copying" of records, and it must use the most economical means reasonably calculated to identify and produce them. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(1).
THE RATE THE ACT CAPS
Georgia lets an office bill redaction time, then caps the rate at "the prorated hourly salary of the lowest paid full-time employee" who has the skill and training to do the work, with no charge for the first quarter hour. Review that actually takes an attorney or a commander still bills at that rate. The gap between what review costs and what may be billed stays the office's own expense.
O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(1)
- Copies: 10 cents a page for letter or legal size, other documents at the actual cost of producing the copy, and electronic records at "the actual cost of the media." O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(2).
- Over $25 needs a notice. If costs will exceed $25.00, the agency must tell the requester within three business days and may wait to search until the requester agrees to pay, unless the request already agreed. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(d).
- Prepayment only over $500. Only when the estimate exceeds $500.00 may the agency insist on payment before starting. Unpaid charges from a past request also justify prepayment. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(d).
- Agreed charges are collectible like other fees owed the agency, whether or not the requester takes the records. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(3).
When it goes wrong
Attorney fees are mandatory. The fines repeat.
Fees the court "shall" award
Any person, firm, corporation, or entity may sue in superior court, and the Attorney General may bring civil or criminal enforcement. O.C.G.A. 50-18-73(a). Where a party acted "without substantial justification," the court shall award reasonable attorney's fees and litigation costs unless special circumstances exist. O.C.G.A. 50-18-73(b).
Good faith reliance on the act is a defense to liability for releasing records. O.C.G.A. 50-18-73(c). The defense that matters in practice is the paper trail: a production that carries the exempting authority for every withholding, decided by a named person.
$1,000, THEN $2,500 PER VIOLATION
A knowing and willful violation is a misdemeanor with a fine up to $1,000.00 for the first violation. A negligent first violation can draw a civil penalty up to $1,000.00. Each additional violation within 12 months can draw up to $2,500.00, civil or criminal. Good faith is a defense to criminal action. O.C.G.A. 50-18-74(a).
CITE THE PARAGRAPH
A withholding must cite its exempting authority "by Code section, subsection, and paragraph," within the three business days or within three business days after delayed records are retrieved. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(d).
DESTRUCTION IS ITS OWN CRIME
Destroying records to prevent disclosure can be prosecuted under the state's records statute. O.C.G.A. 50-18-74(a).
The clock
Three business days to respond. Not always to produce.
The deadline is a response deadline. Records must be produced "within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days" of receipt, and whatever can be located and produced inside that window goes out inside it. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b)(1)(A).
The rest gets a description and a timeline. For records that exist but cannot be produced in three days, the agency provides, within the three days, a description of the records and a timeline for their availability, then produces them "as soon as practicable." O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b)(1)(A).
Written requests are the ones with teeth. A request may be oral or written, but court enforcement and the penalty sections apply only to written requests. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b)(3). Where the agency has designated open records officers, the clock runs from written delivery to them, and requests must be accepted by email or fax if the agency uses them in normal business. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b)(2).
No duty to invent documents. The act does not require producing records that did not exist at the time of the request, or preparing new reports, summaries, or compilations. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b)(1)(A), (j).
Redaction duties
A list the statute orders redacted. Every release.
The mandatory list. Social security numbers, mother's birth name, credit and debit card information, bank account information, account numbers and passwords, utility account numbers, financial data, "insurance or medical information in all records," designated unlisted phone numbers, personal email addresses and cellular numbers, and day and month of birth "shall be redacted prior to disclosure." O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(20)(A).
Public employees get a wider shield. Where a record identifies a public employee's job, title, or office, the home address, home and personal cell numbers, day and month of birth, social security number, insurance and medical information, financial data apart from compensation, and the identity of family members and dependents come out too. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(21).
Redact the line, release the page. Exemptions are interpreted narrowly, and the agency must provide "all other portions of a record" once the excluded material comes out. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(b). Where confidential portions exist, the agency may provide redacted copies in place of inspection. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b)(1)(B).
The labor is billable, at the capped rate. Redaction sits in the same fee sentence as search and retrieval, so the hours can be charged, but only at the lowest paid qualified employee's prorated salary after the free first quarter hour. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(1).
Exemptions
The exception families a records office sees most.
Disclosure is the rule and the exemptions live in one long subsection. Seen most, in plain English:
- Pending investigations and prosecutions, until the direct litigation is final. "Initial police arrest reports and initial incident reports" stay public at all times. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(4).
- Law enforcement records that would identify a confidential source, endanger someone, or reveal covert surveillance or investigations. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(3).
- Medical and veterinary records whose disclosure would invade privacy, and records federal law makes confidential. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(1), (a)(2).
- Accident reports, released on a written statement of need; parties, insurers, and media qualify. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(5).
- Discipline investigations, until 10 days after presentation for action or the investigation concludes. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(8).
- Security plans and vulnerability assessments, including school safety plans. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(25).
- Trade secrets submitted under legal compulsion, through an affidavit procedure with court review. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(34).
- Attorney-client communications and work product. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(41), (a)(42).
- Giglio lists, exempted by a 2025 act. HB 288 (2025).
Recordings
Recordings are records. Some identities inside are not.
Emergency call recordings are public, but records of a 911 system that would reveal the caller's "name, address, or telephone number" are exempt unless the accused or defense counsel requests them, and further redaction is allowed to protect sources, safety, and covert work. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(26).
The hardest audio is affidavit gated. Audio of "speech in distress or cries in extremis" from a caller who died during the call, or the speech or cries of a minor, releases only on sworn affidavit to a short list: the estate's representative, a minor's parent or guardian, the accused where relevant, civil litigants where relevant, and their attorneys. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(26.1). Device audio and video recorded where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, with no pending investigation, carries the same access list. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(26.2).
The core has been stable. The fee, deadline, and recording paragraphs are unchanged since the 2012 rewrite; the 2024 to 2026 amendments touched specific exemptions such as toll records, nonprofit donor data, contractor-held records, and Giglio lists. SB 353 (2024), SB 414 (2024), SB 12 (2025), HB 288 (2025). Georgia's crime victims amendment grants notice and participation rights and contains no records disclosure clause. SR 146 (2018).
Who answers
The custodian answers, even for contractor files.
Requests go to a custodian. Since a 2025 amendment, requests "shall be made upon a custodian," and the custodian must retrieve responsive records held by private persons or entities performing services for the agency, though not records held by a different agency. Contractors must hand records over to the custodian on request. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(a), SB 12 (2025).
Electronic means electronic. Agencies produce "electronic copies of or, if the requester prefers, printouts" of electronic records and database fields, using programs they already have, and may not refuse because the export or the redaction requires search, filter, or report commands those programs can run. The requester may choose the kept format or a standard export format. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(f).
A website is not a refusal. An agency may point to records posted online in place of copies, but for requested data fields it cannot refuse the electronic format on the ground the data is on a website. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(h). The only extra charge for electronic delivery is the actual cost of the media. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(2).
Georgia Open Records Act questions, answered from the statute
How long does a Georgia agency have to respond to an open records request?
Three business days. Records must be produced "within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three business days" of receipt. Records that exist but cannot be produced that fast get a description and a timeline within the three days, then production "as soon as practicable." O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(b). A withholding must cite its exempting authority by Code section, subsection, and paragraph within the same period. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(d).
Can a Georgia agency charge for time spent redacting records?
Yes, with a cap. The agency may charge for search, retrieval, redaction, and production or copying, but the hourly rate cannot exceed "the prorated hourly salary of the lowest paid full-time employee" with the necessary skill and training, and no charge may be made for the first quarter hour. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(1).
What personal data must a Georgia agency redact before releasing records?
The statute orders that social security numbers, mother's birth name, card and bank account information, account numbers and passwords, financial data, insurance or medical information, unlisted phone numbers, personal email addresses and cell numbers, and day and month of birth "shall be redacted prior to disclosure." O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(20). Public employees get the same shield plus home address and phone wherever a record identifies their job. O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(21).
What do copies and estimates cost under the Georgia Open Records Act?
Copies cap at 10 cents a page for letter or legal size, other documents at the actual cost of producing the copy, and electronic records at the actual cost of the media. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(2). Estimates over $25.00 must be noticed within three business days and the search may pause until the requester agrees; prepayment may be insisted on only above $500.00. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(d).
What happens when a Georgia agency violates the act?
The court shall award reasonable attorney's fees and costs against a party that acted "without substantial justification," unless special circumstances exist. O.C.G.A. 50-18-73(b). A knowing and willful violation is a misdemeanor with a fine up to $1,000.00 the first time and up to $2,500.00 per violation within the following 12 months; a negligent first violation can draw a civil penalty up to $1,000.00. Good faith is a defense. O.C.G.A. 50-18-74(a).
How should a Georgia office handle a request for a whole email export?
Electronic records go out as electronic copies, or printouts if the requester prefers, using programs the agency already has, and the agency may not refuse because the export or the redaction takes search, filter, or report commands those programs can run. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(f). The mandatory redaction list applies to what goes out, and the review labor bills only at the capped rate after the free first quarter hour. O.C.G.A. 50-18-71(c)(1), 50-18-72(a)(20).
This page is general information, not legal advice. The statute is the authority: the official code is published through the Georgia General Assembly, and the Attorney General's open government page hosts the act's text. Check anything that matters before it goes out.
The redaction is mandatory. The rate is capped.
Georgia orders a list of personal data out of every release and caps what the hours can bill. RecordBeacon reads a records set, including whole email exports, flags content that may be exempt with the exemption attached, and holds every mark for a named reviewer. The release records who decided what, which is the record you want when a withholding is challenged. The first fifteen documents are free with no card.
Or read how it works on the public records software page.