First Amendment Foundation

I thought the presentation by Ms. Harper was an eye-opening one, especially for me. Before this class I had absolutely no idea about how to obtain public records or the rules on doing so. I still do not know a whole lot, but this presentation really helped me.
If only obtaining public records was as easy as the public records law makes it seem. This law gives the public a very broad right access, stating that any person may inspect any public record in the state of Florida if they wish. Now that seems very simple. If I want to inspect or make copies of a public record, I just go and do it with no questions asked. Of course, there are numerous cases in which it is nowhere near this easy.
The biggest roadblock that seems to be the most evident when it comes to attempting to access public records is fees. According to Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes there should be no fee to inspect a public record and a 15 cents-per-copy fee if you should choose to make copies of a public record. There are many times where this is indeed not the case. Sometimes an agency will claim that a certain public records request requires the extensive use of the agency, and they will charge you accordingly.
One valuable tip that Ms. Harper mentioned was that if an agency simply will not give you access to a certain public record, get them to put this denial and the reason for it in writing. Another thing she mentioned was that if they are charging you a certain fee for a request, to get them to explain to you why it costs what it costs. For example, find out if they are actually charging you $50 per hour for someone to simply observe you inspecting the records. Surely this is not skilled enough labor to charge $50 per hour for it.
I’m glad that I have a number to call when these roadblocks come up in the near future. I most likely will have no idea what to do and will probably end up just overpaying for something. Now I can prevent this.