North Dakota starts further open than most states. The Attorney General's open records guide states that all government records and meetings must be open to the public unless otherwise authorised by a specific law, with the basic provisions beginning at section 44-04-17.1 of the Century Code, and grounds the rule in the principle that the public has the right to know how government functions are performed and how public funds are spent. A record means all recorded information regardless of physical form, paper, email, computer file, photograph, audiotape, video or text message among them, that has a connection with how public funds are spent or with the entity's performance of its governmental functions or public business, regardless of format or location.
The guide lists categories that are open and must be provided on request, including minutes, memos, reports, outlines, notes, employee salary and job performance records, contracts, telephone records and travel vouchers. Anyone may view or obtain copies, regardless of the reason or where they live, and a request may be made in any available medium. Generally an entity cannot ask why the records are wanted, ask for identification, or require the request to be in writing or made in person. For North Dakota records held locally, see the North Dakota county pages.
- Open unless a statute closes it: access may be refused only where a specific law closes all or part of the information.
- A reasonable time: the entity must produce the record or explain the legal authority for refusing, judged by the scope and type of records sought.
- First hour free, then twenty five dollars: locating costs nothing for an hour, then twenty five dollars an hour, with redaction charged separately on the same basis.
- Thirty days to the Attorney General: an opinion request must be submitted within thirty days of the alleged violation or refusal, whenever the requester learned of it.
Written by SearchSystems.net from North Dakota's own systems: the North Dakota Attorney General open records guide, the Attorney General's open records manual, an earlier edition of the open records manual at the State Library, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What a requester must do, and what they never have to
The only real obligation on a North Dakota requester is clarity: a request must reasonably identify existing records. Where a request is unclear, the entity may require written clarification, may not ask the requester's motive or identity even then, and may delay taking action until the clarification arrives. Everything else runs in the requester's favour. No reason need be given, no identification shown, no particular form or medium used, and residence is irrelevant.
The one thing the law will not do is answer questions: a request for information is not a request for records, and a public entity does not have to respond to questions about its decisions, duties, functions or operations, or explain the content of its records. The same principle limits production in three other ways: an entity need not convert its records to another format, need not create or compile records that do not exist, and need not obtain records originating from another public entity that it does not have in its possession.
A reasonable time, and what a refusal has to say
The entity must respond to a record request within a reasonable time, either by providing the record or by explaining the legal authority for denying all or part of the request, with reasonableness depending on factors including the scope and type of records requested. Access may be denied only where a specific statute closes all or part of the information, and the guide distinguishes two kinds. An exempt record may be released or withheld at the entity's discretion.
A confidential record either cannot be released at all, or must have the confidential information redacted before the rest is released. A denial must explain what specific federal or state law makes all or part of the record closed, must be put in writing if the requester asks, and must state if the requested record does not exist. Two things are expressly not violations: declining to provide an exempt record, and being unable to provide a record because it does not exist, even where the requester believes it should.
The charges, hour by hour
Access to public records is generally free. For copies, an entity may charge up to twenty five cents a page for standard letter or legal size paper, and for other types of records the actual cost of copying including labour, materials and equipment. Locating records, including electronic records, is free for the first hour, after which the entity may charge twenty five dollars an hour. Redacting exempt or confidential information carries its own separate twenty five dollars an hour, also after a first free hour.
Where providing electronic records takes more than an hour, the entity may add the actual cost incurred for use of technology resources on top of the locating and redacting charges. Full payment of estimated costs may be required before the entity starts making copies or releasing records. Two further rules shape the practical cost: where the records are already available on the entity's website or online, the entity may simply direct the requester there and need not provide a copy unless the requester is not reasonably able to use the internet; and an entity may allow a requester to duplicate records with their own device, subject to reasonable procedures or conditions protecting the integrity of the records, which can remove copying charges entirely.
Repeated requests, and the written refusal they require
North Dakota allows an entity to cut off a requester, but only on terms. Where repeated requests for records disrupt other essential functions, a public entity may refuse to provide access to or copies of its records to that requester, and must put its reasons for doing so in writing. The requester may then seek an opinion from the Attorney General on whether the refusal was proper, so the decision is reviewable rather than final. For anyone making a series of related requests, the practical defence is to space them and to keep each one narrow enough that it cannot be described as disruptive.
The Attorney General opinion, and the thirty day limit
The state's review mechanism is an opinion from the Office of Attorney General, and the deadline is strict: a request for an opinion must be submitted within thirty days of the alleged open records violation or refusal, regardless of when the requester became aware of the violation. That last clause removes the usual discovery argument, so a requester who learns late that records were wrongly withheld may already be out of time.
The office also publishes an open records manual, updated periodically, which collects the statutes, the exemptions and the office's own opinions, and is the best guide to how a particular category of record has been treated before.
Which records are exempt, and which are confidential
The guide sets the two lists side by side. Exempt material, which an entity may withhold at its discretion, includes the home address, home and personal telephone numbers, employee identification number, driver licence number, dependent information and emergency contact of public employees and of individuals licensed by state occupational and professional boards; personal financial information used for payroll and the type of leave taken or accrued, though the amount and dates of leave are open; active criminal intelligence and investigative information, officer training materials, information affecting officer safety, law enforcement work schedules and background interview records; homicide or sex crime scene images and images of minor victims; information that could locate or identify a victim of domestic violence, human trafficking, a sex offence or a sexual performance by a child; personal identifiers inside law enforcement records, with the year of birth and the city, state and postcode remaining open; financial account numbers; communications between a legislator and a public employee or official; and contact details supplied for communicating with a public entity, which cannot be used to shield the person's identity.
Confidential material, which cannot be released at all, includes social security numbers, the home addresses and telephone numbers of prosecutors, judges, judicial referees, juvenile court directors, probation officers and employees of law enforcement, correctional and corrections agencies, information that would reveal or endanger an undercover officer, public employee medical and employee assistance records, patient records held by university medical centres or public health authorities, criminal history records which may be obtained only from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and identifying information about a living child victim or witness of a crime.
Questions about public records requests in North Dakota
Related North Dakota records
North Dakota's other public records guides on this site are the North Dakota background check guide for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the North Dakota court records guide for the judicial branch case search, the North Dakota arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the North Dakota county pages for every county office.