Vermont's Act gives any person the right to inspect or copy any public record of a public agency, and 1 V.S.A. 316 even fixes the hours: state bodies must allow inspection on any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday between nine and twelve in the morning and between one and four in the afternoon, while bodies of political subdivisions must allow it during customary business hours. The procedural heart of the Act is in the next sections, and the drafting is unusually precise about time.
Section 318 defines its own standard. Promptly means immediately, with little or no delay, and unless the section provides otherwise, not more than three business days from receipt of a request, or from the date of a determination on an internal appeal where a denial has been reversed. The sanction for missing it is built in: a custodian or head of agency who fails to comply with the applicable time limit is deemed to have denied the request or the appeal when the limit expires, which means a requester never has to argue about whether silence was a refusal. For Vermont records held locally, see the Vermont county pages.
- Promptly, defined: immediately, with little or no delay, and not more than three business days from receipt unless the section says otherwise.
- Silence is a denial: missing the applicable time limit is deemed a denial of the request or the appeal, which opens the next stage.
- Thirty free minutes: staff time may be charged only where the work directly involved exceeds thirty minutes, or where the agency agrees to create a record or use a nonstandard format.
- Five business days on appeal: the head of the agency must decide an internal appeal in writing within five business days.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Vermont's own systems: 1 V.S.A. 316, access to public records and documents, 1 V.S.A. 318, procedure, the Secretary of State's uniform charges schedule, the Legislature's introduction and overview of the Public Records Act, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Three certificates, depending on the answer
Section 318(b) requires the custodian to produce the record or a copy promptly, and then sets out three situations in which a written certificate takes the place of production. Where the record is in active use or in storage and therefore not available when the person asks to examine it, the custodian must promptly certify that fact in writing and, in the certificate, set a date and hour within one calendar week of the request when the record will be available.
Where the custodian considers the record exempt, the certificate must identify the records withheld, include the asserted statutory basis for the denial together with a brief statement of the reasons and supporting facts, provide the names and titles or positions of each person responsible for the denial, and notify the requester of the right to appeal to the head of the agency. And where the record does not exist, the custodian must promptly certify that in writing, stating that it does not exist under the name the applicant gave or under any other name known to the custodian, which closes off the familiar argument about whether a search covered the right title.
Ten business days, and only for three reasons
Extensions are possible but bounded. In unusual circumstances the time limits may be extended by written notice to the requester setting out the reasons for the extension and the date on which a determination is expected, and no such notice may specify a date resulting in an extension of more than ten business days from receipt of the request. Unusual circumstances are defined, and only to the extent reasonably necessary to the proper processing of the particular request: the need to search for and collect records from field facilities or other establishments separate from the office processing the request; the need to search for, collect and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records demanded in a single request; or the need for consultation, to be conducted with all practicable speed, with another agency having a substantial interest in the determination, among components of the agency with substantial subject matter interest, or with the Attorney General.
An extension notice that cites none of those, or that names a date beyond ten business days, does not meet the section.
Redaction instead of refusal, and help with scope
Section 318(e) is short and decisive: a public agency shall not withhold any record in its entirety on the basis that it contains some exempt content where the record is otherwise subject to disclosure. Instead the agency must redact what it considers exempt and produce the record, accompanied by an explanation of the basis for the denial of the redacted information. Alongside that sits a duty to talk. In responding to a request, an agency must consult with the requester to clarify the request or obtain additional information that will help it respond and, where the Act allows, facilitate production.
In unusual circumstances, as defined above, an agency may ask a person seeking a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records to narrow the scope, which is a request rather than a condition. A separate duty covers accessibility: where a requester has a disability requiring accommodation to gain equal access to the record, they tell the agency what accommodation they want, and the agency must give primary consideration to that choice, although it may propose an alternative that achieves equal access.
The internal appeal, decided in five business days
Any denial of access by the custodian may be appealed to the head of the agency, who must make a written determination within five business days of receiving the appeal. Where the head of the agency upholds the denial in whole or in part, the determination must include the asserted statutory basis for upholding it, a brief statement of the reasons and supporting facts, and notification of the provisions for judicial review under section 319.
Where the head of the agency reverses the denial, the records must be promptly made available, with promptly again meaning three business days, counted this time from the date of the determination on appeal. Because a missed deadline is a deemed denial, an appeal that goes unanswered for five business days is itself refused, and the requester can move to court without waiting further.
What a Vermont copy costs
Where the agency's own copying equipment is used, it may charge the actual cost of providing the copy, plus the costs of posting the record or transmitting it by fax or other electronic means. Where another law already fixes a copying fee, that fee applies and nothing further may be added. Staff time is different, and the threshold is low but real: an agency may charge for staff time only where the time directly involved in complying with the request exceeds thirty minutes, where the agency agrees to create a public record, or where it agrees to provide the record in a nonstandard format and the time exceeds thirty minutes.
For such charges the agency may require the request to be in writing and the charges to be paid in whole or in part before delivery, and on request it must provide an estimate of the charge. Actual cost is narrowly defined for the schedule the Secretary of State must adopt, taking into account only the cost of the paper or electronic media, a prorated amount for maintenance and replacement of the copying equipment, and utility charges directly associated with copying, which keeps per page figures low.
Political subdivisions set their own charges after a public hearing using the same factors, and where a legislative body has not adopted a schedule, the state's uniform schedule applies to it instead.
Reading a Vermont response
Start with the calendar, because three business days is the default and missing it is a denial rather than a delay. If the answer is that the record is in use or in storage, check that the certificate sets a date and hour within one calendar week. If it is a refusal, check the four elements the statute requires, the records identified, the statutory basis with reasons and supporting facts, the names and positions of those responsible, and the notice of the right to appeal.
If it is an extension, check that it names one of the three defined unusual circumstances and a date inside ten business days. If part of a document has been blacked out, check that the agency produced the rest with an explanation, since withholding a whole record for partial exempt content is forbidden. And if a bill arrives, ask whether more than thirty minutes of staff time was genuinely involved, and for the estimate the Act says must be provided on request.
Questions about public records requests in Vermont
Related Vermont records
Vermont's other public records guides on this site are the Vermont background check guide for the Crime Information Center record check, the Vermont court records guide for the judiciary's public portal, the Vermont arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Vermont county pages for every county office.