Nevada rolls dice with new five-day response time limit for records requests - what do you think?
Nevada enacted a law requiring government agencies to respond to a written public records request within five days. See story at Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Many states have such requirements, but some, such as Montana, Arizona and Florida, do not. To see what your state allows, check out the Open Government Guide at Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press or the Citizen Access Project. A quick check of the laws at Citizen Access Project shows that about half the states have a deadline of anywhere from three days to 10 days. The other half don't specify a time, but usually indicate the request should be responded to "promptly." Are deadlines the way to go? People argue both ways. Without a deadline an agency can drag out a response if it wants. However, a three-day or five-day limit might result in officials waiting the full five days before responding, long past a story's deadline. What do you think?