Tennessee's records law is administered with the help of the Office of Open Records Counsel, which sits in the Comptroller's office and answers questions, publishes guidance and advisory opinions, trains officials and helps resolve disputes about live requests, while being explicit that it is not a clearinghouse and does not make requests for anyone. Its questions page defines a public record using the statutory words, all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, microfilms, electronic data processing files and output, films, sound recordings or other material, regardless of physical form, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by a governmental entity.
Finding the right office is made easier by a statutory duty. Under Tenn. Code Ann. 10-7-503(g) every entity subject to the Act must have a public records policy setting out the process for making requests to inspect or copy, any required forms, the process for responding, a statement of any fees for copies, and the contact information for its public record request coordinator, the person responsible for making sure requests reach the right custodian and are answered as the Act requires. There is no central repository in Tennessee, so a request goes to the entity believed to hold the records, and the state publishes contact lists for state agencies and for counties. For Tennessee records held locally, see the Tennessee county pages.
- Citizens of Tennessee: the statutory right belongs to them, although an entity may choose to give records to anyone else.
- Seven business days: where records cannot be produced promptly, the entity must make them available, deny in writing with the basis, or state the time needed.
- Inspection is free: no charge may be made for inspecting records, paper or electronic, unless another law requires one.
- The first hour: labour is chargeable only after one hour of work, at the hourly wage of the employees reasonably necessary, with copies at 15 cents in black and white.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Tennessee's own systems: the Tennessee Comptroller Office of Open Records Counsel questions on the Public Records Act, the office's contacts for public record requests, the office's page on exceptions to the Act, the office's advisory opinions, the office's public records training page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who may ask, and what an entity may ask of them
The Act gives the right of inspection and copying to citizens of Tennessee, and the office states that plainly, while adding that governmental entities may make records accessible to people who are not Tennessee citizens if they choose. Identification can be required: an entity may ask a requester to present a government issued photo identification that includes an address, and where a requester does not have one, it may accept other forms it considers acceptable, which should be listed in its public records policy.
On detail, the Act requires a request to be sufficiently detailed to let the entity identify the specific records wanted. Entities are not required to sort through files or compile information, so a request can be denied where it does not identify specific records or would require the custodian to trawl and assemble material rather than retrieve it.
How a request may be made
Tennessee separates inspection from copying, and the rules differ. A request to inspect records may be submitted in person or by telephone, fax, post or email where the entity uses those channels for official business, and online where the entity maintains a portal for requests, and an entity cannot require a request made only to inspect to be in writing. Where the request is for copies, or for both inspection and copies, the entity may require it in writing or on a particular form, and then it may be submitted in person, by post or by email where those channels are used, or through the entity's portal.
Where an entity does not impose a writing requirement for copies, a copy request can be made the same way as an inspection request. Nobody can be required to appear in person either to make a request or to collect records, and where a requester asks for records to be posted, the entity must post them once the delivery cost has been paid.
The seven business days, and what counts as prompt
Records that are readily available should be provided promptly. Where that is not practicable, Tenn. Code Ann. 10-7-503(a)(2)(B) requires the custodian to take one of three steps within seven business days: make the records available to the requester, deny the request in writing and provide the basis for the denial, or give the requester a written explanation of the time reasonably necessary to produce the records. There is no fixed outer limit after that, so the written time estimate is the thing to hold an entity to.
The office's published advisory opinions include one specifically on how the seven business days are computed, alongside opinions on the basis for denying a request, on copying records during inspection, on requests from corporations, on charges for electronic copies and on the burden of establishing Tennessee citizenship, which together form the practical case law of the Act.
What it costs, and the charges that are not allowed
The Act prohibits a custodian from charging anything to inspect public records unless a charge is required by some other law, and the office confirms that this applies to electronic records as well, so an entity may not bill for the time a requester spends looking at records on a screen. Where someone inspects first and then asks for copies, they may be charged copying costs and labour for those particular records only. Copies are governed by the statewide schedule of reasonable charges published by the office: 15 cents for a black and white copy at letter or legal size and 50 cents for a colour copy at those sizes, unless the entity's actual cost to produce a copy exceeds those thresholds.
Labour may be charged at the hourly wage of the employees reasonably necessary to produce the requested information, but only after one hour of work has been done, which means short jobs cost nothing beyond the paper. Charges imposed in line with the schedule are presumed reasonable, and the office invites complaints where a requester thinks an estimate or a charge is not. For electronic copies, an entity may charge a per page rate only for paper it must actually produce, such as printing records in order to redact them, together with labour and its out of pocket cost for a flash drive or other storage device.
Estimates, and the two ways a requester can lose their rights
An entity must provide an estimate of the reasonable costs, and it may not charge for copies until it has done so, which gives a requester a simple response to a surprise invoice: ask for the estimate the statute requires. Two statutory penalties run the other way. Where a person makes two or more requests to inspect records within six months and, on each occasion, fails to view the records within fifteen business days of being told they are ready, the entity need not comply with any request from that person for six months from the second request, unless it decides the failure was for good cause.
And where a person asks for copies, receives an estimate, agrees to pay, and then does not pay after the copies are produced, the entity need not answer any further request from them until the bill is settled. A requester who switches from copies to inspection before production cannot be charged inspection costs, although an entity that has already produced copies in reliance on an agreement may seek equitable relief.
Exceptions, and where to look them up
The Act opens records to Tennessee citizens except as otherwise provided by law, and the exceptions are scattered through the code rather than listed in one place. The office addressed that by publishing a report in January 2018 identifying 538 statutory exceptions to the Act, with annual appendices recording new and amended exceptions from each legislative session since, and by building a searchable database of those exceptions.
State law, common law, court rules and federal law can all make a record confidential. For anyone arguing about a refusal, the database is the fastest way to test whether the statute an entity has cited says what the entity claims, and the advisory opinions show how the office has treated recurring disputes, from dash camera recordings and juvenile records to attorney work product and copyrighted material.
Reading a Tennessee response
Three documents decide most Tennessee disputes: the entity's own public records policy, which must exist and must name a coordinator; the written response within seven business days, which must either produce, refuse with a basis, or state the time needed; and the estimate, without which nothing can be charged. A requester should expect to show identification, should keep requests specific enough to identify records rather than ask for information, and should remember that inspection is always free.
Where the entity has gone quiet, the Office of Open Records Counsel will help with a live dispute even though it cannot make the request for you.
Questions about public records requests in Tennessee
Related Tennessee records
Tennessee's other public records guides on this site are the Tennessee background check guide for the Bureau of Investigation criminal history service, the Tennessee court records guide for the clerks of court, the Tennessee arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Tennessee county pages for every county office.