Arkansas Freedom of Information Act: Deadlines, Fees, and Appeals

The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act of 1967, A.C.A. section 25-19-101 et seq., is one of the oldest open-records laws in the country and one of the few limited to a state's own residents. Section 25-19-105(a)(1)(A) opens public records to inspection and copying "by any citizen of the State of Arkansas," and for most records the custodian must hand them over immediately.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article presents general legal information and has not been reviewed by a licensed Arkansas attorney.

This page covers Arkansas state law. The federal Freedom of Information Act shares a name but is a separate statute that applies only to federal agencies; see how to file a FOIA request. To compare Arkansas with other states, see the public records laws by state hub.

What the Arkansas FOIA is

Arkansas passed its Freedom of Information Act in 1967, and it has carried the same name as the federal act ever since. They are entirely separate. The Arkansas FOIA reaches Arkansas state agencies, counties, cities, school districts, and other public bodies. It has nothing to do with the FBI, the IRS, or any other federal agency.

The act is codified at A.C.A. section 25-19-101 and following. Section 25-19-105 is the provision that actually grants access and is the one to cite in a request letter. Section 25-19-107 is the one to cite if you are denied.

A note on sourcing. Arkansas designates a commercially hosted database as the official public access point for the Arkansas Code, and opening a full section there requires clearing a CAPTCHA. The statutory text quoted throughout this page comes instead from the Arkansas Attorney General's Freedom of Information Handbook, 21st edition, which reprints A.C.A. sections 25-19-101 through 25-19-112 in full and is published by the office that trains public officials on the act.

Who can request Arkansas public records

Arkansas is a resident-only state, and this is the single most consequential thing to know before you file.

Section 25-19-105(a)(1)(A) reads:

"Except as otherwise specifically provided by this section or by laws specifically enacted to provide otherwise, all public records shall be open to inspection and copying, including without limitation copying through image capture, including still and moving photography and video and digital recording, by any citizen of the State of Arkansas during the regular business hours of the custodian of the records."

Read the qualifier carefully. It is not "any citizen." It is "any citizen of the State of Arkansas." That distinction separates Arkansas from the great majority of states, whose statutes say "any person," and it puts Arkansas in the same small group as Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia, with Delaware's text more ambiguous. The Supreme Court upheld a state's power to limit its records law to its own citizens in McBurney v. Young, 569 U.S. 221 (2013), a Virginia case, so the restriction is not vulnerable to the obvious constitutional challenge.

Practical consequences:

• An out-of-state requester has no enforceable right of access under the Arkansas FOIA. Some Arkansas agencies answer nonresident requests as a matter of courtesy, but that is discretion rather than obligation.
• If you live elsewhere and need an Arkansas record, the realistic options are to have an Arkansas resident make the request, to look for the record in a published source, or to check whether a different statute with its own access rules covers it.
• Say plainly in the request that you are an Arkansas resident if you are. It removes the easiest ground for a refusal.

There is also a second, narrower exclusion that catches people by surprise. Section 25-19-105(a)(1)(B) denies access to inspect or copy public records to "a person who at the time of the request has pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of a felony and is incarcerated in a correctional facility," and to the representative of such a person. The one exception is written into the same provision: the bar does not apply where the representative "is the person's attorney who is requesting information that is subject to disclosure under this section." An incarcerated person's counsel may therefore file; a family member acting as an intermediary may not.

Deadlines: immediate is the rule

The most repeated statement about Arkansas is that agencies get three days. That is the exception, not the rule, and getting it backwards costs requesters time they did not have to give up.

Section 25-19-105(a)(6) provides:

"The requirements of this subsection do not affect the obligation of a custodian to immediately provide to the requestor any responsive records not in active use or storage."

Immediately means immediately. If you appear at a records counter and ask to see a record the office is not actively using and has not sent to storage, the obligation is to produce it then and there.

The three-day clock appears in section 25-19-105(e), and it is conditioned:

"If a public record is in active use or storage and therefore not available at the time a citizen asks to examine it, the custodian shall certify this fact in writing to the applicant and set a date and hour within three (3) working days at which time the record will be available for the exercise of the right given by this chapter."

Two things follow. First, the three working days are available only when the record genuinely is in active use or storage. Second, invoking the delay is not free: the custodian must certify the unavailability in writing and must name a specific date and hour inside the window. A verbal "we will get back to you" is not what the statute allows. Ask for the written certification by name.

Separately, section 25-19-105(a)(3) requires a custodian to respond in writing to a written request, stating that no responsive records exist, identifying the applicable exemptions for records being withheld, or naming the correct custodian if the records are held elsewhere. Section 25-19-105(a)(5) provides that a custodian who knowingly fails to respond that way is subject to the section 25-19-104 penalty.

Fees, and the waiver most requesters never ask for

Arkansas has one of the more requester-favorable fee provisions in the country, because the expensive part of a records request is staff time and Arkansas does not let agencies bill it.

Section 25-19-105(d)(3)(A)(i) caps any copying fee at the actual costs of reproduction, "including the costs of the medium of reproduction, supplies, equipment, and maintenance, but not including existing agency personnel time associated with searching for, retrieving, reviewing, or copying the records."

The rest of the fee structure:

Ask for the waiver in the request letter. Section 25-19-105(d)(3)(A)(iv) provides that copies "may be furnished without charge or at a reduced charge if the custodian determines that the records have been requested primarily for noncommercial purposes and that waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest." It is discretionary, which means it is granted or refused by a person reading your letter, so give that person something to work with: state that the purpose is noncommercial and describe how the information will reach the public.

The one place personnel time is chargeable is section 25-19-109, which governs special requests for electronic information. If you ask a custodian to summarize, compile, or tailor electronic data, or to convert it to a format its software does not readily produce, the custodian may agree, and may then charge the actual verifiable costs of personnel time exceeding two hours, capped at the salary of the lowest paid employee or contractor with the necessary skill and training. An itemized breakdown is required there too. The design is deliberate: reading what the agency already has is free, asking the agency to build something new is not.

How to file an Arkansas FOIA request

There is no statewide portal. Requests go to the custodian of the record, which means the specific agency, county office, city department, or school district that holds it. Section 25-19-105(a)(2)(B) allows the request in person, by telephone, by mail, by fax, by email, or by other electronic means the custodian provides, and (a)(2)(C) requires it to be specific enough to let the custodian locate the records with reasonable effort.

1. Address it to the record custodian. Larger agencies designate a FOIA coordinator; smaller ones route through the clerk or the director's office.
2. State that you are an Arkansas resident. This is the threshold question under section 25-19-105(a)(1)(A) and answering it up front avoids the most common refusal.
3. Cite the act by name and number, the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, A.C.A. section 25-19-101 et seq.
4. Put it in writing. A written request triggers the written-response duty in section 25-19-105(a)(3), which is what turns a vague brush-off into a documented denial you can take to court.
5. Describe the records specifically. Name the record type, the office that holds it, and a date range.
6. Ask to inspect first, then copy selectively. Inspection and image capture are free by statute under section 25-19-105(d)(3)(A)(v), so photographing what you need can eliminate copy charges entirely.
7. Request the fee waiver under section 25-19-105(d)(3)(A)(iv) in the letter itself if your purpose is noncommercial, and say why release serves the public interest.
8. Ask for the itemized breakdown required by section 25-19-105(d)(3)(B) if any fee is quoted.
9. Keep proof of the date you sent it. Every timing argument later depends on it.

Our public records request generator will draft an Arkansas request with the residency statement, the fee waiver paragraph, and the correct citations. It runs in your browser and saves nothing you type.

Denials and what comes next

Arkansas has no freedom of information commission and no binding administrative appeal body. There is no equivalent of Connecticut's Freedom of Information Commission, which can order records released and impose penalties. What Arkansas has instead is a court remedy built for speed.

You may appeal immediately. Section 25-19-107(a) provides that any citizen denied the rights granted by the chapter "may appeal immediately from the denial" to the Pulaski County Circuit Court or to the circuit court of the residence of the aggrieved party where the State of Arkansas or a state department, agency, or institution is involved, and to the circuit court of the appropriate judicial district where a county, municipal, township, or school district agency, or a private organization supported by or expending public funds, is involved. There is no exhaustion requirement to satisfy first.

The hearing is mandatory and it is fast. Section 25-19-107(b) provides that on written application it "shall be mandatory upon the circuit court having jurisdiction to fix and assess a day the petition is to be heard within seven (7) days of the date of the application of the petitioner, and to hear and determine the case." Seven days is close to the fastest statutory records hearing in the country.

Noncompliance is contempt. Section 25-19-107(c) provides that those who refuse to comply with the orders of the court shall be found guilty of contempt of court.

Attorney fees are mandatory, except against the state. This is the trap in Arkansas practice and it is worth understanding before you file. Section 25-19-107(d)(1) requires the court to assess reasonable attorney fees and other litigation expenses against a defendant where the plaintiff, after filing suit, obtained a significant or material portion of the information requested, unless the court finds the defendant's position was substantially justified. Section 25-19-107(d)(2) allows fees against a plaintiff only if the action was primarily frivolous or dilatory.

Then section 25-19-107(e)(1) removes the fee award entirely where the defendant is the State of Arkansas or a state department, agency, or institution. A plaintiff who substantially prevailed against a state body must instead file a claim with the Arkansas State Claims Commission under section 19-10-201 et seq., and section 25-19-107(e)(2)(B) requires that claim to be filed within sixty days of the final disposition of the appeal. That deadline is separate from anything the circuit court tells you, it starts running when your case ends, and missing it forfeits the fees. A suit against a city or a school district carries no such step; a suit against a state agency does.

A violation can be a crime. Section 25-19-104 provides that any person who negligently violates the chapter is guilty of a Class C misdemeanor. Prosecutions are rare, but the provision is real and citing it in correspondence gets attention.

Practical steps that resolve many denials without any of that:

• Ask the custodian to identify, in writing, the specific exemption relied on and the specific records withheld, which section 25-19-105(a)(3)(B) already requires.
• Ask whether a redacted version can be produced. Section 25-19-105(f)(1) bars a denial on the ground that exempt and nonexempt information are commingled, and (f)(2) requires production of any reasonably segregable portion.
• Narrow the request by date, custodian, or record type.
• Ask a supervisor or the agency's attorney to review the denial.

Police records and body camera footage

Arkansas has no body-worn camera statute inside its FOIA. A full read of A.C.A. sections 25-19-101 through 25-19-111 in the Attorney General's handbook turns up no provision creating a separate track, a retention floor, a release standard, or a redaction rule for police video. That is a sourced absence rather than a gap in this page's research, and it matters, because it means a bodycam request in Arkansas is an ordinary public records request governed by the ordinary exemptions.

The exemption that actually decides most of these requests is section 25-19-105(b)(6), which removes from disclosure "undisclosed investigations by law enforcement agencies of suspected criminal activity." Note what it does and does not say. It protects investigations, not the category of police video, and an undisclosed investigation is a temporary condition. Once a case is closed or the investigation has been disclosed, the basis for withholding weakens considerably.

Fees for police video are the one place Arkansas departs from its own general rules. Section 25-19-112 lets a state, county, municipal, school, college, or university law enforcement agency, dispatch center, public safety answering point, jail, detention center, or electronic record provider charge for the costs of retrieving, reviewing, redacting, and copying audio, visual, and audiovisual media. Under section 25-19-112(c)(2), a request requiring three hours or less of personnel and equipment time is provided at no charge apart from the cost of reproducing the media, unless the requester or the requester's entity made a request under that section in the preceding thirty days; a request requiring more than three hours is charged at a rate not exceeding $20 per hour on a prorated basis; and a request estimated to exceed three hours may be required to be prepaid.

So the practical sequence is:

• Ask whether an investigation is open, and if so, ask when it is expected to close and renew the request then.
• Ask the agency to identify the specific statutory basis for any withholding rather than accepting a general reference to law enforcement records.
• Ask about the retention schedule for the recording. Video is often overwritten on a fixed cycle, and a request filed too late cannot be filled regardless of the legal analysis.
• Keep the request under the three-hour threshold in section 25-19-112 where you can, by naming the incident, the date and time window, and the specific officers.

For the general framework on emergency call recordings, see our explainer on whether 911 calls are public records.

Vital records are a different system

Arkansas birth, death, and marriage certificates do not come through a FOIA request. The Arkansas Department of Health's vital records office applies its own eligibility rules, which restrict certified copies to people with a defined relationship or interest and often require identification and proof of relationship.

If a death certificate is what you need, start with our guide to Arkansas death records.

A note on scope

This page describes the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act as of August 2026, using the statutory text reprinted in the Arkansas Attorney General's Freedom of Information Handbook, 21st edition. It is general legal information, not legal advice, and it does not catalogue every exemption in section 25-19-105(b). Act 505 of 2025 amended sections 25-19-103 and 25-19-106, so confirm the current text of those two sections before relying on a printed edition. For a specific denial, consult an attorney licensed in Arkansas.