Tennessee

Fees
Online

A 1998 Tennessee Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of the media, coupled with a new access-oriented governor, has made access to electronic records in Tennessee easier than its been in years, said Nashville’s WSMV-TV investigative reporter Nancy Amons.

"I just got something I’ve been trying to get for 10 years," Amons said of her recent acquisition of both the Department of Corrections and State Employees databases.

However, the Department of Transportation continues to refuse to release bridge data, and driver’s licenses are hard to come by because of the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act. While outlying area agencies remain inconsistent on access, Amons said access at the state and metro government level is good: "We get most of what we ask for and we get it pretty quickly."

The law. The Public Records Act applies to all "state, county and municipal records" unless made confidential by statute. The act does not define records. Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503(a). However, another statute defines public records to include "electronic data processing files and output, . . . or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics." § 10- 7-301(6).

A legislative committee has "exclusive authority" to approve "direct access" to the legislative computer system, if "protection of any confidential information is ensured." The statute provides that "if public information is stored in a computer-readable form, the committee has exclusive authority to determine the form in which the information will be reproduced for the requester. . . . If access to such public information is also available in printed form, it need not be provided in an electronic readable form. . . . The committee shall designate the terminals, if any, at which public access is given to public information." § 3-10-108 (Supp. 1993).

Government officials may maintain records on computer or on removable computer storage media, including CD-ROMs, instead of on paper if they remain available for public inspection. The official must be able to provide a paper copy of the information upon request and is not required to sell or provide the data media (tape, disk or CD) upon which records are stored or maintained. Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-121.

Each county official may provide computer access and remote electronic access for inquiry only to information contained in the records of that office, which are maintained on computer storage media in that office during and after regular business hours." § 10-7-123.

Cases & opinions. The Supreme Court held that if there is information that is stored on computer but not on the format desired by the requester, the agency is required to provide the information in the format requested. The Tennessean v. Electric Power Board of Nashville, 979 S.W. 2d 297 (Tenn. 1998) (electric power board was required to disclose its customer names, addresses, and telephone numbers as a public record, even though it did not have a list of only that information.). This 1998 decision probably overturns Seaton v. Johnson, 898 S.W.2d 232 (Tenn. App. 1995) (stating that the Act does not require that state conduct a computer search for a particular type of record).

A federal district court ruled that the media plaintiff had no First Amendment right to City of Cookeville employees’ Web browser history and "cookie" files, which store information about web sites that the user has visited. The court noted that it did not address whether the files would be available under the state Public Records Act. Putnam Pit v. City of Cookeville, 23 F. Supp. 2d 822 (M.D. Tenn. 1998), aff’d in part, rev’d in part by 221 F.3d 834 (6th Cir. 2000)

A citizen may obtain a duplicate of a public record on magnetic tape at an appropriate cost. Tenn. Op. Att’y Gen. 78-10 (Jan. 9, 1978). A county election commission that keeps its voter registration list on a computer system "is not required to make copies of the voter registration list in a computerized format." The list must be available for copying in printed format. Tenn. Op. Att’y Gen. 92-63 (Oct. 8, 1992).

Fees. The law does not directly address fees, but requires the lawful records custodian to adopt and enforce reasonable rules for copying. Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-506. The section governing records of traffic and local ordinance violations requires a "reasonable fee" for any copy. § 10-7-507. A county may charge a fee that reasonably approximates the cost of copying for a magnetic tape containing information on registered voters. 80 Tenn.Op. Att’y Gen. 272 (1980).

If a request is made for a copy of a public record that has "commercial value" and the request requires copying "all of a portion of a computer-generated map or other similar geographic data that was developed with public funds," additional fees may be charged. Additional fees include labor costs, design and development costs, and costs to ensure the data are accurate and current. The provision only applies in counties with populations between 300,000 and 480,000 people. Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-506.

County government records are available electronically. County officials may charge a fee sufficient to recover the costs of providing remote electronic access. When determining reasonable fees for online access to review records, fees shall not include the cost of storage and maintenance of the records or of the electronic record storage system. All fees are to be uniformly applied and once a remote electronic access system is in place, all members of the public are to have equal access, even if they seek to use the information for proprietary purposes. Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-123.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503(a) does not authorize a local government body to charge a fee for allowing inspection of a public record. "We are not aware of any provision in Title 10, Chapter 7 of the code that would allow a local agency to charge a research and/or location fee per se. Conditioning the right to inspect a public record upon the payment of a fee unauthorized by state law would be tantamount to denying the right of inspection that is set forth in Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503." Tenn. Op. Att’y Gen 01-021 (Feb. 8, 2001).

Online. Criminal case dispositions, including dispositions through diversion, may be made available for public inspection over the Internet. Criminal case dispositions, including dispositions through diversion, as well as all records, documents, and pleadings filed with the court clerk, are public records that may be made available for public inspection over the Internet pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §10-7-123. Tenn. Op. Att’y Gen. 00-014 (Jan. 26, 2000).