When a Request Is Not Quite a Request

Ohio Public Records Briefing - Edition #114

Welcome back. We hope you enjoyed a Memorial Day weekend honoring the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

This week, we talk about a question so basic it’s easy to overlook: what does it actually take to make a public records request? The Ohio Supreme Court just weighed in. From there, we turn to body camera footage out of Minnesota that runs straight into a now-familiar Ohio wrinkle, and we close with a reader question about accident report fees and a third-party platform. Let’s get to it!

Court Case Review: State ex rel. Howard v. Chief Inspector’s Office, 2026-Ohio-1428 (Ohio Supreme Court)

This week’s case is VERY NEW, and it comes right from the Ohio Supreme Court. It tackles a question so basic we probably don’t think about it much: what does someone actually have to do to make a public records request? Is it enough to just ask a government official for something, or are there magic words involved?