Massachusetts
Massachusetts Public Records Law
M.G.L. c. 66 § 10; 950 CMR 32
Public records law for Massachusetts. Covers state agencies, counties, municipalities, school districts, and special districts.
The clock
10 business days
10 business days to respond.
Statutory: 10 business days to respond.. Actual medians vary widely by agency and request complexity; simple requests often 7-30 days, complex 60-300+.
Reading the statute itself
The text of this one is not reproduced here. The United States Code carries no copyright, so federal FOIA is printed on this site in full; the fifty state codes are published by fifty legislatures under their own claims of compilation copyright, so they are linked instead. Everything on this page — the deadline, the appeal path, the fee-waiver standard — is Aletheca’s summary of that text, and the official source is one click away.
If they refuse
- Appeal deadline
- Not specified
- Appeal route
- Appeal to Supervisor of Records (Secretary of Commonwealth) within 90 days; binding determination.
- Litigation
- Not specified
Fees and expedition
Quirks worth knowing
Supervisor of Records powerful; agencies must file appeal response within 10 days.