Washington's Public Records Act sits at chapter 42.56 of the Revised Code, and the Attorney General's resource manual opens its first chapter with the statutory declaration in RCW 42.56.030, that the people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them, that in delegating authority they do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not, and that the chapter is to be liberally construed, with its provisions governing in the event of a conflict with any other act. RCW 42.56.550(3) adds that courts must take into account the policy that free and open examination of public records is in the public interest even though it may cause inconvenience or embarrassment to public officials or others, which is the answer to most arguments that disclosure would be awkward.
A public record has three elements under RCW 42.56.010, and the first is broad: a writing means any recording of any communication, image or sound, so conventional documents, videos, photographs and electronic records including email and computer data all qualify. The agencies covered are all state and local agencies, and the courts have applied the Act to a city design and development department, a county prosecutor's office, a city parks department and a public hospital district, while some non government bodies performing governmental or quasi governmental functions can be the functional equivalent of an agency where they meet the established criteria. Every agency must appoint a public records officer and publish that officer's contact details, adopt procedures for handling requests, publish a list of exemptions, maintain an index of records with certain exceptions, adopt a copying fee schedule and provide a review procedure for denials. Those procedures must provide the fullest assistance to requesters and the most timely possible action on requests, and an agency may not use its own rules to create an exemption. For Washington records held locally, see the Washington county pages.
- Five business days: the initial response deadline, excluding the day of receipt, and a voluminous request is no excuse for missing it.
- Four allowed answers: produce the records, give a link to them, acknowledge with a reasonable time estimate, or deny in writing.
- Inspection is free: no charge for inspecting records, and none for the staff time spent searching for records to inspect.
- Actual cost only: copying charges cover paper, ink, media, equipment, copying labour, scanning and postage, but never administrative overhead.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Washington's own systems: the Washington Attorney General open government resource manual, chapter 1 of the manual on general and procedural provisions, chapter 2 of the manual on exemptions, the Attorney General's formal opinions page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Making a request that counts as one
No particular form is required, but a request must give the agency fair notice that it is a request under the Public Records Act, and it must identify the documents with reasonable clarity so that the agency can locate them. It need not cite the statute. Requests may be made by post, which in current practice includes email. Oral requests are not prohibited, but the manual lists the reasons a written request is better: it fixes the date, it clarifies what was asked for, and it gives the agency a way to come back for clarification or to work out whether the requester is entitled to a record that would otherwise be exempt, so an agency receiving an oral request may need to confirm it in writing.
Many agencies publish their own request forms, which set out what the agency needs in order to search, and an agency may require requests to go to a named person or address provided requesters have notice, but its rules must be reasonable and must give the fullest assistance.
Two limits define what can be asked for. The records must already exist and be identifiable, so a standing request for records that may be created in future is not valid, and an agency is not required to create a record, to answer questions, to do research, or to give information that is not an identifiable public record. Electronic databases complicate that line, and the manual notes that whether producing a database output is production or creation depends on the facts.
Retention rules matter too: an agency is not liable for records that did not exist when the request was made, nor for records destroyed under a lawful retention schedule, but a record kept beyond its schedule is still a public record, and once a request is pending the agency must suspend any planned destruction until the request is resolved.
Why you do not have to say why
A person making a request is not required to give a reason for it. The one exception concerns lists of individuals, where RCW 42.56.070(9) allows an agency to ask whether the request is for a commercial purpose. The limitation has three elements, a list of individuals, a commercial purpose, and the absence of a law specifically authorising the disclosure, with individuals meaning natural persons rather than businesses, committees or groups, and a list keeping that character even where it carries other fields such as addresses.
Commercial purpose takes its ordinary meaning, covering business activity by any enterprise intended to generate profit, revenue or financial benefit. An agency must avoid releasing such lists for commercial use and may require a declaration describing the purpose, and in some circumstances may need to go further and investigate. Separately, while RCW 42.56.080 says agencies may not distinguish between requesters and must make records available to any person, other statutes can limit who may receive particular records, such as health care records, a court order or injunction can bar release to a specific person, and the 2016 body worn camera provisions can require an agency to know who is asking.
The five business day response, and the four ways to make it
An agency must respond within five business days of receiving a request, with the day of receipt excluded from the count. That initial response must do at least one of four things: produce the records, by making them available for inspection at the agency or by posting or emailing copies; provide an internet address and link to the records on the agency's website; acknowledge receipt and give a reasonable estimate of the time needed; or deny all or part of the request in writing.
A request for voluminous records does not excuse the initial response, even where production will take much longer, and the courts have required strict compliance. Although the Act requires writing only for denials, the manual advises agencies to respond or confirm in writing anyway so that a contemporaneous record exists, and to explain in at least general terms where they searched when no responsive records are found. The consequence of missing the deadline is concrete: under the case law, failing to respond within five business days is a violation of the Act and entitles the requester to seek an award of attorney fees and statutory penalties.
Inspection, instalments and what copies cost
A requester has the right to inspect and to copy, and is not required to do both, so someone may inspect everything on a subject and then ask for copies of a few items, or ask for copies without inspecting first. Records can be produced in instalments over time, though an agency is not obliged to respond piecemeal simply because some records are readily available. Where an agency has published records on its website it can respond by linking to them, but if the requester cannot access the internet the agency must provide copies or access from an agency computer.
Inspection happens at agency offices during customary business hours, which must be at least thirty hours a week except in weeks containing state legal holidays, unless requester and agency agree otherwise, and those hours must be posted on the agency website. No one may be charged a fee for inspecting public records, and it follows that no agency may charge for the time spent searching for records to be inspected. Copies are different.
Charges are limited to actual costs, which may include paper, ink, storage media such as a disc, the per page cost of using copying equipment, the staff salary expense incurred in copying, scanning fees, and the actual cost of postage and any shipping container. General administrative or overhead charges may not be included. Separate rules govern charges for producing and redacting certain body worn camera recordings, and other statutes outside the Act can set copying charges that supersede its own.
Where the guidance comes from
Washington gives both sides an unusually complete set of materials. The Attorney General publishes the open government resource manual in three chapters, covering the general and procedural provisions of the Public Records Act, its exemptions, and the Open Public Meetings Act, with links to the statutes, court decisions, formal opinions and the model rules, and the manual notes its own limits, having last been revised in 2016, so later decisions and statutes may have moved the law.
The model rules in chapter 44-14 of the administrative code, last revised in 2007, are what many agencies adopt as their own procedures. The office also issues formal Attorney General opinions, which are not binding but have historically been given great weight by the courts, and which can be requested only by legislators, statewide elected officials, appointed heads of state agencies, boards or commissions, and county prosecuting attorneys, not by private citizens or local government officials other than prosecutors.
Reading a Washington response
Count the five business days from the day after the request arrived, and check that whatever came back is one of the four permitted responses. An acknowledgement must carry a reasonable estimate of time, not merely a promise to look. A denial must be in writing. A link to the agency website is a valid answer unless the requester cannot use it. Where nothing is found, the agency should be able to say where it searched. On money, two charges are not allowed: anything for inspection, including search time, and anything for administrative overhead in copying.
And where the deadline passes with silence, the case law treats that as a violation rather than a delay, which is what makes fees and penalties available.
Questions about public records requests in Washington
Related Washington records
Washington's other public records guides on this site are the Washington background check guide for the State Patrol criminal history service, the Washington court records guide for the courts' public search, the Washington arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Washington county pages for every county office.