Thursday 24 October 2013

California Public Records

By Ben Kingsley


CA public records, according to the California Public Records Act or CPRA, can be accessed by any entity whether the one requesting the records is the public such as an individual person or private such as an organization or company. The aim of the CPRA is to ensure that government transactions are made public to ensure that every government official or agency is held accountable for their actions. All records are available for inspection by the public and can be accessed during the government agency's business hours.

Under Sec. 6252 (e) of the CPRA, records that are accessible by the public are records that (a) are made by the government for the public business and (b) were placed in the Office of the Governor on or after Jan. 6, 1975. Records are available from different State agencies including the State's Bureau, offices, departments, local municipalities, counties, and agencies authorized by the government.

Although the State of California made access to public records a right for every individual, there are certain records that are excluded from the public. These records, according to the Government code 6255, are records of which the public disclosure is detrimental to the public interest and thus are restricted. Aside from this, other exclusions include the following: (a) reports or records that are pending litigation, (b) records that would constitute to invasion of one's privacy, (c) memoranda or drafts (d) banking regulations, (e) records by law enforcement agencies which include intellectual and confidential information, (f) records pertaining to tax information, (g) employee relations, (h) library circulation report and (i) internal security report. The personal information of the State's employees is also restricted from the public and only accessible by the State's agent as pursuant to Sec. 6254.3 (a) of the government code.

To obtain a copy of the record requested, the person requesting can phone, email, mail or view the records. Each department or bureau has their own guidelines on filling up forms or making requests. The Law mandates the state agencies to respond to the request within ten days from the day the request was made. Payment of fees also differ depending on the agency where one is requesting the public records although the State only mandates the agencies to charge the person requesting the records for direct cost of photocopying the records.

There maybe times when the office concerned would require more time to retrieve the information. The State gives the offices fourteen days to accommodate the request although in certain cases, the office responsible would give the person requesting the report a period that would exceed the 14 days set by the law. These instances would include having to retrieve the information from a remote office, the volume of the request(s) being made, whether the request needs approval from other agencies and the retrieval would require using different methods such as coding in computers to be able to retrieve the data.

For those who want to access government public records such as death, birth or marriage records, a convenient way to do so is to check through online sites that offer public records services. This is the most convenient way to retrieve information without having to wait for the results. Records are readily available and for complete details, one can access those records for a minimal fee, which is really a great value for one's money.




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