Indiana APRA deadlines, explained: the two clocks.
Indiana never tells you the date the records are due. It tells you when a refusal or silence becomes a denial: a 24-hour clock for a walk-in or telephone request, seven calendar days of silence for a written one. Understanding that structure is the whole game.
- In-person and telephone
- Denial occurs on refusal by the designated records person, or 24 hours after any employee refuses, whichever is first (IC 5-14-3-9(b))
- Mail, fax, portal (and email per OPAC)
- Denial occurs after 7 days of silence, counted as calendar days (IC 5-14-3-9(c))
- Production deadline
- None fixed. Records are due within a reasonable time (IC 5-14-3-3(b))
- PAC complaint window
- 30 days from the denial to file with the Public Access Counselor (IC 5-14-5-7); opinion due in 30 days, 7 for priority complaints (IC 5-14-5-9, 5-14-5-10)
- Penalty gates
- Attorney fees require prior PAC contact (IC 5-14-3-9(i)); civil penalties up to $100 then $500, personally assessable, require a pre-suit PAC opinion plus specific intent (IC 5-14-3-9.5)
Indiana does not have a production deadline. It has denial clocks.
Start with the fact that reorganizes everything else. The Access to Public Records Act, Indiana’s FOIA equivalent, never sets a date by which the records must be in the requester’s hands. Production is due within a reasonable time after the request is received (IC 5-14-3-3(b)). What the statute does fix, precisely, is the moment at which silence or refusal becomes a denial of disclosure. Everything a requester can do about an agency, from a Public Access Counselor complaint to a lawsuit, dates from that moment.
So the question an Indiana records office should be asking is not “when are the records due?” It is “when does my silence turn into a denial?” The answer depends entirely on how the request arrived, and there are two clocks.
Clock one: in-person and telephone requests, 24 hours
For a requester who is physically present in the office, makes the request by telephone, or requests enhanced access to a document, a denial of disclosure occurs at the earlier of two events: when the person designated as responsible for records release decisions refuses the request, or when 24 hours elapse after any employee of the agency refuses it (IC 5-14-3-9(b)). The “any employee” language matters. A front-counter “we don’t give those out” from whoever happened to be standing there starts the 24-hour clock, whether or not that person had any authority to decide.
The Public Access Counselor states the practical rule plainly: the agency must respond to the request within 24 hours. The handbook’s own example is a person who walks into the county auditor’s office asking to inspect council minutes; the auditor need not produce the records on demand, but must at a minimum acknowledge the request within 24 hours. Train everyone who answers a phone or staffs a counter to route records requests to the designated person the same day, and the clock takes care of itself.
Clock two: written requests, seven calendar days
For a request sent by mail, by facsimile, or through an electronic portal, a denial of disclosure does not occur until seven days have elapsed from the date the agency receives it (IC 5-14-3-9(c)). Two counting details deserve attention. First, the clock runs from receipt, not from the date on the letter. Second, these are calendar days. The statute says seven days with no business-day carve-out, and the Public Access Counselor handbook confirms the rule as seven calendar days. Weekends and holidays count. An office that quietly counts business days is giving itself two to four extra days the law does not provide.
Now the subtlety that separates offices that know this statute from offices that assume it. The text of 9(c) lists mail, facsimile, and electronic portal. It does not say email, and the 2026 amendments, which added the electronic-portal language, still did not add it. Read literally, an emailed request sits in a gap between the two clocks. The Public Access Counselor closes that gap: the official handbook applies the 7-day rule to email, stating that a request received by facsimile, mail, or electronic mail must be responded to within seven calendar days. That interpretation is what OPAC will apply if a complaint lands on its desk. The practical advice is simple: treat every emailed request as a 7-calendar-day request and note the arrival date the day it comes in.
What a denial sets in motion
“A denial of disclosure occurred” is not just a label. It is the trigger for the entire enforcement chain:
- The 30-day PAC complaint window (IC 5-14-5-7): the requester has 30 days from the denial to file a formal complaint with the Public Access Counselor. The counselor’s advisory opinion is due within 30 days of filing, or within 7 days for complaints given priority (IC 5-14-5-9, 5-14-5-10).
- The right to sue (IC 5-14-3-9(e)): the requester may file in circuit or superior court to compel disclosure. Review is de novo and the burden of proof is on the agency.
- Attorney fees, gated on PAC contact (IC 5-14-3-9(i)): a plaintiff who substantially prevails is entitled to reasonable attorney fees and costs, but is not eligible for them if the suit was filed without first seeking and receiving a PAC informal inquiry response or advisory opinion, outside a narrow urgency exception.
- Civil penalties, personally assessable (IC 5-14-3-9.5): up to $100 for a first violation and up to $500 for each additional violation, and they can be imposed on the individual officer or management-level employee, not just the agency. The gate is high: penalties require a pre-suit PAC advisory opinion instructing the agency to allow access, followed by a continued denial with the specific intent to unlawfully withhold the record.
Notice the pattern: Indiana routes nearly everything through the Public Access Counselor first. For an agency, that means a PAC complaint is not the end of the world; it is the state’s designed first step, and responding to it well is usually what keeps a dispute out of court. The July 2026 overhaul left this structure intact; what changed is covered in our guide to the 2026 APRA amendments.
Denying in writing: two required elements
When you do deny, form matters. An oral request, in person or by telephone, may be denied orally. But a request that arrived in writing, by facsimile, or through enhanced access, or an oral request that was denied and then renewed in writing, must be denied in writing, and the denial must include a statement of the specific exemption or exemptions authorizing the withholding and the name and the title or position of the person responsible for the denial (IC 5-14-3-9(d)). A denial that just says “we can’t release that” fails both requirements, and it is the document a PAC complaint will quote back to you.
Respond inside the clock, produce in a reasonable time
Here is how the two-clock structure translates into daily operations. The Public Access Counselor handbook says it directly: APRA “requires only a response and not the actual production of records” within the 24-hour or 7-day period, and records must be produced in a reasonable period of time considering the facts and circumstances. The clocks govern the acknowledgment; reasonableness governs the delivery.
The disciplined workflow follows from that. Log the request and its arrival channel the day it comes in, because the channel decides which clock applies. Acknowledge inside the clock, every time, even when the records will take weeks to assemble. Put a realistic production estimate in writing as part of that response. Then track your own estimate as seriously as you tracked the statutory clock, because a reasonable-time standard is judged on facts and circumstances, and an agency that blows silently past its own stated date is building the record against itself. If the request involves copying fees, the fee rules have their own traps, covered in our guide to APRA fees.
If you also follow Michigan practice, keep the two states firmly apart. Michigan FOIA runs on business days with a fixed response structure: five business days to respond, one extension of up to ten more. Indiana runs on a 24-hour clock and seven calendar days, with no extension mechanism and no fixed production date. We walk through the Michigan side in Michigan FOIA deadlines, explained.
Dekree runs this workflow for Michigan local governments today: deadline clocks computed the moment a request arrives, every open request’s remaining time on one screen, and response letters drafted for the clerk’s review. We are bringing the platform to Indiana next, built for Indiana’s two clocks and its calendar-day counting; see our Indiana page for where things stand. If you want it in your office, email contact@dekree.ai with the subject line Indiana and we will add your office to the Indiana rollout list.
A one-paragraph checklist
Record the arrival date and the channel for every request. Walk-in or telephone: respond within 24 hours, and make sure counter and phone staff route requests to the designated records person immediately. Mail, fax, portal, or email: respond within seven calendar days, counting weekends and holidays. Respond means respond, not produce; acknowledge, state what exists, and give a written estimate of when the records will be ready. Deny in writing with the specific exemption cited and the responsible person’s name and title. Then deliver on your estimate. The office that logs every request and answers inside the clock almost never meets the Public Access Counselor as a respondent.
Common questions
How long does an Indiana public agency have to respond to a public records request?
It depends on how the request arrived. For a requester who is physically present in the office, requests by telephone, or requests enhanced access, a denial of disclosure occurs when the designated records person refuses, or 24 hours after any employee refuses, whichever comes first (IC 5-14-3-9(b)). The Public Access Counselor treats this as a duty to respond within 24 hours. For a request sent by mail, by facsimile, or through an electronic portal, a denial of disclosure occurs after seven days of silence (IC 5-14-3-9(c)).
Are the seven days calendar days or business days?
Calendar days. The statute says seven days with no business-day carve-out (IC 5-14-3-9(c)), and the Public Access Counselor handbook states the rule as seven calendar days after the request was received. A request that lands the Friday before a holiday weekend does not get extra time, so offices that count business days are running a slower clock than the law does.
Does the 7-day clock apply to emailed requests?
The statute text of IC 5-14-3-9(c) lists mail, facsimile, and electronic portal requests. It does not mention email, even after the 2026 amendments. But the Public Access Counselor handbook applies the 7-day rule to email expressly, stating that a request sent by mail, facsimile, or email must be responded to within seven calendar days. The safe practice is to treat email exactly like mail: respond within seven calendar days.
Is there a deadline to actually produce the records?
No fixed one. APRA requires production within a reasonable time after the request is received (IC 5-14-3-3(b)). The Public Access Counselor handbook is explicit that APRA requires only a response, not the actual production of records, within the 24-hour or 7-day period, and that records must be produced in a reasonable period of time considering the facts and circumstances.
What happens if an agency never responds at all?
Silence past the applicable clock means a denial of disclosure has occurred. That starts a 30-day window for the requester to file a formal complaint with the Public Access Counselor (IC 5-14-5-7), and it opens the door to a lawsuit to compel disclosure (IC 5-14-3-9(e)). A plaintiff who substantially prevails is generally entitled to attorney fees, but only if they first sought a Public Access Counselor informal inquiry response or advisory opinion (IC 5-14-3-9(i)). Civil penalties of up to $100 for a first violation and up to $500 for each additional violation can be assessed personally against an officer or management-level employee, but only after a pre-suit advisory opinion instructing disclosure and a continued denial with specific intent (IC 5-14-3-9.5).
This article is educational information for Indiana public agencies, current as of the publication date. It is not legal advice, and statutes and court decisions change. Confirm specifics with your agency attorney. Statute text: iga.in.gov.