Mississippi Code
Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-7 (2026)
Fees for costs incident to providing records
✓ current as of July 2026
- (1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, each public body may establish and collect fees reasonably calculated to reimburse it for, and in no case to exceed, the actual cost of searching, reviewing and/or duplicating and, if applicable, mailing copies of public records. Any staff time or contractual services included in actual cost shall be at the pay scale of the lowest level employee or contractor competent to respond to the request. Such fees shall be collected by the public body in advance of complying with the request.
- (2) A public body may establish a standard fee scale to reimburse it for the costs of creating, acquiring and maintaining a geographic information system or multipurpose cadastre as authorized and defined under Section 25-61-1 et seq., or any other electronically accessible data. Such fees must be reasonably related to the costs of creating, acquiring and maintaining the geographic information system, multipurpose cadastre or other electronically accessible data, for the data or information contained therein or taken therefrom and for any records, papers, accounts, maps, photographs, films, cards, tapes, recordings or other materials, data or information relating thereto, whether in printed, digital or other format. In determining the fees or charges under this subsection, the public body may consider the type of information requested, the purpose or purposes for which the information has been requested and the commercial value of the information.
Laws, 1983, ch. 424, § 4; Laws, 1999, ch. 466, § 2, eff. 7/1/1999.
Amended by Laws, 2014, ch. 416, HB 928, 1, eff. 7/1/2014.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 7
cases, 1985–2017 · leading case: Roberts v. Miss. Rep. Party State Exec. Comm., 465 So. 2d 1050 (Miss. 1985).
Roberts v. Miss. Rep. Party State Exec. Comm., 465 So. 2d 1050 (Miss. 1985). “The specific question to be determined is whether or not the language in Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-7 (1972) (as amended), which allows the public body to collect fees "reasonably calculated to reimburse it .”
Mississippi Dep't of Corr. v. Roderick & Solange MacArthur Just. Ctr., 220 So. 3d 929 (Miss. 2017). “Quasi-Contract Right 11 The MPRA requires that “each public body may establish and collect fees reasonably calculated to reimburse it for . . . the actual cost of searching, reviewing and/or duplicating and, if applicable, mailing copies of public records.”
Brown v. State, 102 So. 3d 1087 (Miss. 2012). “Mississippi Republican Party State Executive Committee, for example, this Court compared Mississippi Code Section 25-61-7 with Section 45-1-21, as both sections prescribed the amount a public body could recover for furnishing records.”
Miss. State Univ. v. PETA, INC., 992 So. 2d 595 (Miss. 2008). “Miss.Code Ann. § 25-61-7. Upon redaction and payment, MSU is hereby ordered to provide the protocols to PETA.”
Harrison Cnty. Dev. Com'n v. Kinney, 920 So. 2d 497 (Miss. Ct. App. 2006). “Mississippi Code Annotated § 25-61-7(1) (Rev.2003) authorizes a public body to establish and collect fees reasonably calculated to reimburse the body for the actual cost of searching, reviewing, and/or duplicating records.”
Mississippi State Univ. v. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc., 992 So. 2d 595 (Miss. 2008). “Miss.Code Ann. § 25-61-7. Upon redaction and payment, MSU is hereby ordered to provide the protocols to PETA.”
The Iams Co. v. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc. (Miss. 2006). “§ 25-61-7 . Upon redaction and payment, MSU is hereby ordered to provide the protocols to PETA.”
— Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-7(1) — 1 case
Harrison Cnty. Dev. Com'n v. Kinney, 920 So. 2d 497 (Miss. Ct. App. 2006). “Mississippi Code Annotated § 25-61-7(1) (Rev.2003) authorizes a public body to establish and collect fees reasonably calculated to reimburse the body for the actual cost of searching, reviewing, and/or duplicating records.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.