A. Can the requester choose a format for receiving records?

In Birmingham News Co. v. Peevey, 21 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2125 (Cir. Ct. of Montgomery Co., Ala., July 22, 1993), the trial court ordered the Department of Motor Vehicles to produce motor vehicle records in computer form, as requested — and as generated by the Department for its own use. The trial court quoted with approval an Ohio Supreme Court opinion, as follows:

"[M]embers of the public should not be required 'to exhaust their energy and ingenuity to gather information which is already compiled and organized in a document created by public officials at public expense.' Similarly, a public agency should not be permitted to require the public to exhaust massive amounts of time and resources in order to replicate the value added to the public records through the creation and storage on tape of a data base containing such records."

Id. at 2126 (quoting Ohio ex rel. Margolius v. Cleveland, 19 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2122, 2124 (Ohio S. Ct. 1992) (effective Sept. 13, 1997, access to MVRs is governed by 18 U.S.C. §  2721).

The Alabama Attorney General has declared, however, that

[i]t is not [a public agency's] responsibility or duty to provide the information to [the requester] in a particular form nor must [the agency] necessarily compile or assimilate the information for the public. Your responsibility is to provide reasonable access to the information and for the information to be a reasonable form (e.g. legible copies if possible or in regular language rather than a code form a person outside the office would not be familiar with).

Op. Att'y Gen. Ala. No. 88-00079 at 5 (Dec. 16, 1987) (diskette of personnel data requested; the requested data need not be provided in that particular form); see also Op. Att'y Gen. Ala. No. 2007-001, 2006 Ala. AG LEXIS 119 (Oct. 2, 2006) (“Because a state agency may regulate the manner in which public records are produced, inspected, and copied, a state agency . . . is not required to distribute public records in the manner that a requestor specifies.”)