Delaware adopted its Freedom of Information Act in 1977, and the Department of Justice quotes the purpose clause on its open government pages: it is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that citizens have the opportunity to observe the performance of public officials and to monitor the decisions made in formulating and executing public policy, and vital that citizens have easy access to public records so that the society remains free and democratic. The Act sits at 29 Del. C. 10001 to 10008.
The definition of a public record is broad, taking in all information of a public body held in physical documents or electronic format that relates in any way to public business or public purposes, or is of public interest. Whether a particular body is a public body turns on a two part test in section 10002(k), and the courts are outside the Act entirely, having their own rules for access to court records. Exclusions from the definition, listed in section 10002(o), include trade secrets, investigatory files compiled for civil or criminal law enforcement purposes, and certain personnel and medical information. For Delaware records held locally, see the Delaware county pages.
- Fifteen business days: the outer limit for a response, with the body expected to answer as soon as possible within it.
- A reason plus an estimate: voluminous requests, those needing legal advice and archived records allow delay only with that reason and a good faith time frame.
- Twenty free pages: the first twenty standard black and white pages cost nothing, then ten cents a sheet or twenty cents double sided.
- No charge for the exemption review: administrative fees may include staff processing time but never the body's legal review of whether a record is exempt.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Delaware's own systems: the Delaware Department of Justice open government pages, Chapter 100 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code, a published Attorney General opinion on the Act, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
How a Delaware request has to be made
A request must be in writing and go to the appropriate public body. The state publishes a standard request form that can be submitted electronically through an online portal to various state entities, and as a paper form, but the standard form is not required. Where a requester does not use it, the request must still be in writing, must include a description of the records sought, must provide the necessary contact information, and must comply with the public body's own records policy, which is why reading that policy before writing is worth the few minutes it takes.
Every request must adequately describe the records in sufficient detail to let the body locate them with reasonable effort, and the Department of Justice encourages requesters to be as specific as possible. Two limits follow from the nature of the Act: it does not require a body to create a record that does not already exist, and it does not require a body to answer questions posed in a request, since its purpose is access to existing records and to meetings.
Fifteen business days, and the three reasons for more time
The Act requires a public body to respond as soon as possible, and no more than fifteen business days after the request is received. A response may provide access or deny it. It may also, in three defined situations, be a notice of delay: where the request is for voluminous records, where it requires legal advice, or where the records are in storage or archived. In any of those cases the body must cite the reason and provide a good faith estimate of the time frame in which a response will be provided.
That phrasing matters, because a delay notice without one of the three reasons, or without an estimated time frame, does not meet the statute. Retention is a separate subject: the Act imposes no duty to keep records, which comes from the state's records retention laws instead, so a request made late may find nothing to answer it.
What a Delaware request costs
Fees come from 29 Del. C. 10003(m), and the statutory figures apply unless the public body has adopted a different fee structure in its own code, which makes the body's code the first thing to check when an invoice looks unfamiliar. Under the statutory scheme the first twenty pages of standard sized black and white copies are free. Beyond twenty pages the charge is ten cents a sheet, or twenty cents for a double sided sheet. Microfilm, microfiche, colour copies and non standard sizes have their own specified rates.
Administrative fees may also be charged for the staff time associated with processing a request, but one element is expressly excluded: no fee may be charged for the public body's legal review of whether a record is exempt. That exclusion is the single most useful line in the fee section, because the lawyer's time spent deciding what can be withheld falls on the body rather than the requester.
Petitioning the Department of Justice
Rather than starting in court, a Delaware citizen may petition the Department of Justice for a determination of whether a public body has violated, or is about to violate, the Act. The Department reviews the petition for completeness, asks for further information where it is needed, contacts the public body for a written response to the allegations where necessary, decides some matters without a response, and then issues a written determination to the parties, either as a letter or as a published Attorney General Opinion.
The published Rules of Procedures for FOIA Petitions and Determinations set out the process in detail. The limits are stated as plainly as the power: the Department's authority extends to the determination only, and does not include issuing injunctions or assessing penalties against a public body.
Going to court, and the manual behind the practice
In certain circumstances a citizen may instead file a lawsuit, subject to the statutory requirements in 29 Del. C. 10005, and the Department's own advice is to speak promptly to a private attorney about the options, since it cannot give legal advice to requesters. Running alongside both routes is the Policy Manual for FOIA Coordinators, which the Department publishes and updates every two years, most recently in October 2025. The manual is written for the officials who answer requests, which makes it the most reliable guide to how a Delaware body is expected to handle one, from identifying whether an entity is a public body to applying the exemptions and calculating administrative fees.
Reading the relevant chapter before writing a request, or before challenging a refusal, usually tells a requester what the body has been trained to do.
Reading a Delaware response
Count fifteen business days from receipt. If what arrives is a delay notice, check that it names one of the three permitted reasons and gives a good faith estimate of when the response will come. If records are refused, look for the exemption in section 10002(o) or elsewhere in the Act, since the definition of a public record is otherwise wide enough to cover most material relating in any way to public business. If an invoice arrives, check whether the body has its own fee structure in its code, confirm that the first twenty standard pages were free, and check that nothing has been billed for legal review of exemptions.
And where the response, or the silence, looks wrong, the petition to the Department of Justice costs nothing and produces a written determination that is published for everyone to read.
Questions about public records requests in Delaware
Related Delaware records
Delaware's other public records guides on this site are the Delaware background check guide for the State Police criminal history service, the Delaware court records guide for the courts' own access rules, the Delaware arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Delaware county pages for every county office.