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Guidelines and Procedures for Making Open Records Requests
Alabama Open Records Act Requests
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (“UAB”) complies with the laws of the State of Alabama, including granting residents of the state the right to review and obtain copies of certain public records in accordance with Alabama Code § 36-12-40, et seq. (the “Alabama Open Records Act”). As such, UAB has adopted the guidelines and form below to assist individuals requesting records from UAB.
Submitting a Request
A request for public records must be made by completing the request form. The request form should be completed for each request made. UAB is not obligated to respond to public records requests that do not follow these guidelines and procedures.
All requests should identify the requested public records with reasonable specificity, including, but not limited to, the date and/or time frame of such records. UAB is not obligated to respond to requests that are vague, ambiguous, overly broad, or unreasonable in scope.
The general public has an interest in having the business of UAB carried on efficiently and without undue interference. Therefore, UAB will devote as much of its resources to addressing public records requests as reasonably possible without interfering with the fulfillment of the normal job duties of its personnel.
Costs
UAB, in accordance with the Alabama Open Records Act, will impose a reasonable fee to process open records requests. However, except for requests designated as time-intensive, UAB may waive this fee when a request does not require significant time or resources to process. This waiver is at the sole discretion of UAB upon evaluation of the request, and this waiver shall be determined on a request by request basis.
UAB, in coordination with the applicable records custodian, will estimate the time necessary to search, compile, and prepare any responsive public records for production and generate an invoice for the incurred charges. Said invoice will be provided to the requester prior to searching for any responsive public records. In addition, the requester will be notified that the invoice is only an estimate, and that additional time and costs may be incurred to complete the search and/or preparation of any responsive public records. The requester has 90 days from the date of the invoice to pay the invoice. UAB may withhold any responsive records until receipt of payment of any issued invoice. Once the requester accepts and pays the fee, the time period for providing a response will commence. If the invoice is not paid within 90 days of the date of issuance, UAB will close the request.
What Happens Next
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Responses
UAB will acknowledge all requests within 10 business days of receipt. UAB will provide a substantive response to a proper request in compliance with the Alabama Open Records Act.
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Standard Requests
A public records request that seeks one or more specifically and discreetly identified public records that the Office of Open Records, in coordination with the applicable records custodian(s), determines would take less than eight (8) hours of staff time to process. Standard requests should require no or minimal clarification by the requester. Standard requests will be processed as expeditiously as possible; however, UAB may extend this period in 15 business day increments upon written notice to the requester.
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Time-Intensive Requests
Open records requests that would take more than eight hours to process will be designated as “time-intensive requests.” UAB will notify the requester within 15 business days of acknowledging receipt that the request qualifies as a time-intensive request. The requester may elect to withdraw the time-intensive request and submit a new request, or the requester may proceed with the time-intensive request, in which case the requester will be charged a reasonable fee, as described above. Time-intensive requests will be processed as expeditiously as possible; however, UAB may extend this period in 45 business day increments upon written notice to the requester.
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Reasonable Specificity
In some instances, UAB will seek clarification or additional information because the request is vague, ambiguous, overly broad, or unreasonable in scope. If the requester fails to provide clarification or additional information within 30 days of the date of UAB’s request to do so, UAB will close the request. As noted above, UAB is not obligated to respond to requests that are vague, ambiguous, overly broad, or unreasonable in scope. If UAB responds to a request by seeking clarification or additional information, the timelines noted herein shall be tolled and restart if UAB receives the requested clarification or additional information within the 30-day time period.
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Documents
When possible, all documents will be provided in electronic/digital form.
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Exemptions
Open records requests are subject to appropriate protections for private, confidential, privileged, and other nonpublic information. State law provides that some information may be exempted from production including, but not limited to, registration and circulation records and information concerning the use of university libraries; records concerning security plans, procedures, assessments, measures, or systems, and any other records relating to, or having an impact upon, the security or safety of persons, structures, facilities, or other infrastructures, including information concerning critical infrastructures and critical energy infrastructures the public disclosure of which may reasonably be expected to be detrimental to the public safety or welfare; records that the disclosure of which would otherwise be detrimental to the best interests of the public; or, records protected from disclosure by other state and federal laws, including, but not limited to, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy (FERPA) law.
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Litigation
Under the Alabama Open Records Act, a party to a pending or threatened action, suit, or proceeding is not permitted to use a public records request to obtain information regarding a matter relevant to the pending or threatened action, suit, or proceeding in lieu of the proper discovery methods provided under applicable rules of procedure.