Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen recently signed into law revised and updated rules for the state’s public records policies.

The new public records law puts the duties of Tennessee’s open records ombudsman into law and establishes a seven-day deadline for records custodians to respond to public records requests — or they need to explain why more time is needed to fill the records requested.

The new public records law also requires the ombudsman’s office to develop a reasonable fee schedule for large public records requests.

The Public Records Act states that all state, county and city public records need to be available for review by any Tennessee citizen — unless the record is restricted by law.

There are currently hundreds of records exemptions in the law, like: medical records, private military documents as well as Tennessee investigative records.

Source: Associated Press