Missouri Public Record Laws

Citations

Miss. Rev. Stat. § 109.005 et. Seq.
(http://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=109)

Exemptions to Disclosure

  • Preliminary deliberations not retained nor presented by agency at public meeting
  • Work product
  • Confidential
  • Privileged
  • Negotiations [any minutes, voting records, etc. to be made available upon execution of agreement]
  • There may be some protection for records that relate to proprietary “scientific and technological innovations.” Miss. Rev. Stat. § 610.021(15). The Sunshine Law does provide that “public records relating to scientific and technological innovations in which the owner has a proprietary interest” may be closed. Miss. Rev. Stat. § 610.021(15).

Access Rights

  • Any member of the public
  • Upon request, response within reasonable period of time, no more than 3 business days
  • Detailed explanation must be given re: cause of any delay and place and earliest time and date record will be available – may exceed 3 days for reasonable cause
  • Written statement of grounds for denial, citing specific provision of law (w/in 3 business days of original request)
  • Description of exempt data severed from record with exempt and nonexempt,if separation/redaction is readily apparent to requestor – unless description would defeat purpose of exemption
  • Fees for both copying and inspection access
  • Up to $5K penalty for purposeful, up to $1K for knowing, violation by custodian (preponderance of the evidence)
  • Good faith non-employee reporters and employee whistleblowers exempt from liability and discipline [610.028]
  • Custodian strongly encouraged, but not required, to provide online access to its records kept in electronic format

Destruction of Public Records

  • 109.210: No records shall be destroyed or disposed of unless state records commission or local records board first determines the records have no administrative, fiscal, research, or historical value; no records can be destroyed until they meet the minimum retention period
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