What can an Indiana public agency charge for records? The APRA fee rules.

In most states, the fee conversation starts with labor: how many hours of clerk time did the request consume, and at what rate. Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act starts from the opposite premise. Under IC 5-14-3-8(b), a public agency may not charge any fee to inspect a public record (8(b)(1)), and may not charge any fee to search for, examine, or review a record to determine whether it may be disclosed (8(b)(3)). The hours an office spends locating records and reviewing them for release, the work that dominates fee bills elsewhere, are simply not billable in Indiana.

The statute writes one carve-out into the no-search-fee rule itself, and it belongs to schools. A school corporation or charter school gets 5 free hours of electronic-record search time per request; beyond that it may charge an hourly fee capped at the lesser of the searcher’s hourly rate or $20 per hour, prorated for partial hours, with no minimum fee and no charge for computer processing time (8(b)(2), 8(m)). If your agency is not a school, this exception does not apply to you. One caveat sits outside 8(b): under 8(f), if a separate statute or a court order specifically sets a certification, copying, facsimile, or search fee, the agency must collect it.

One more free lane: there is no fee for providing an electronic copy of a record by electronic mail (8(b)(4)), apart from records whose fees are separately authorized elsewhere, such as electronic maps under 8(j) or reprogramming under 6(c). A record that already exists as a PDF, emailed to the requester, costs the requester nothing.

Duplicating records onto electronic media is priced differently. For a duplicate of a computer tape, computer disc, microfilm, law enforcement recording, or a similar record system, the agency may charge up to its direct cost of supplying the information in that form (8(g)). Direct cost is a defined term: 105% of the sum of the initial development of a program (if any), the labor required to retrieve electronically stored data, the labor to obscure nondisclosable material in a law enforcement recording and review that it was obscured, and any medium used for electronic output (IC 5-14-3-2(e)). Two hard edges sit inside that rule: a copy of a law enforcement recording may not exceed $150 (8(g)(1)), and if the obscure-and-review labor on a recording is performed by an attorney, it is limited to reasonable attorney’s fees (2(e)).

When disclosable data is stored on a computer system alongside nondisclosable data and the agency must reprogram the system to separate the two, the requester can be charged the direct cost of that reprogramming (IC 5-14-3-6(c)). That is the closest APRA comes to a chargeable labor category for ordinary agencies, and it applies only to genuine reprogramming, not to routine review time.

Electronic maps get their own lane: a uniform fee based on a reasonable percentage of the agency’s direct cost of maintaining, upgrading, and enhancing the map plus the direct cost of supplying it (8(j)). The agency may waive the portion of that fee covering maintenance, upgrading, and enhancement when the map will be used for a noncommercial purpose, and the statute names examples: public agency program support, nonprofit activities, journalism, and academic research (8(k)).

The fee caps are not advisory. Under IC 5-14-3-9.5(d), an officer or management-level employee who intentionally charges a copying fee that the individual knows exceeds the amount set by statute, fee schedule, ordinance, or court order is subject to a civil penalty: up to $100 for a first violation and up to $500 for each additional violation (9.5(h)). The penalty can only be imposed in a court action under IC 5-14-3-9, and only after the Public Access Counselor has issued an advisory opinion in the matter (9.5(e)); a reliance defense exists for opinions of the agency’s legal counsel or the attorney general, though 9.5(f) words it in terms of denying access, not charging a fee. But when a penalty lands on an individual, that individual is personally liable for it (9.5(j)).

The practical takeaway for a clerk or records officer: an itemized fee, computed against a fiscal-body-adopted schedule and the statutory caps, is a fee no one has to defend. A round number invented at the counter is the thing 9.5(d) was written for.

Never charge to let someone inspect a record, and never charge for the time it takes to find records or review them for disclosure (8(b)(1), 8(b)(3)), unless you are a school using the 5-free-hours rule (8(m)). Email records for free (8(b)(4)). Before charging for copies, confirm your fiscal body has adopted a fee schedule; then bill the greater of 10 cents per page (25 cents color) or actual cost with no labor or overhead inside it, cap certification at $5, and take advance payment on big jobs if you need to (8(d), 8(e)). Price electronic media at direct cost under the 105% formula, keep law enforcement recording copies at or under $150 (2(e), 8(g)), and charge reprogramming only when you actually reprogram (6(c)). Apply the out-of-state supplemental fee only to out-of-state requesters, within its caps, and waive it when the request serves the public interest (8(n), (o)). Do that, and 9.5 never enters the conversation.