Pennsylvania
Right-to-Know Law
65 P.S. § 67.101 et seq. (RTKL)
Public records law for Pennsylvania. Covers state agencies, counties, municipalities, school districts, and special districts.
The clock
5 business days
5 business days; 30-calendar-day extension for 5 enumerated reasons.
Statutory: 5 business days; 30-calendar-day extension for 5 enumerated reasons.. 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
- 15 days — business days from receipt of denial notice (65 P.S. section 67.1101)
- Appeal route
- Appeal to Office of Open Records (OOR) within 15 business days; then Commonwealth Court. OOR is mandatory for local/state executive.
- Litigation
- Not specified
Fees and expedition
Quirks worth knowing
OOR is powerful and fast; presumption of openness; 5-day.