In Ohio any person of legal age is granted undisputed right to request, get and inspect copies of public records kept in custody by repositories at state and local government level. Now the issue is how this right is to be realized, meaning the practical details of procedure of requesting and honoring requests for public records. The traing sessions are to provide specific information and instructions on compliance with the law primarily from behalf of the officials who need to have clear realization that no private individual or representative of public group, newspaper etc.

Can be asked to disclose his or her personal details or explain the reason of thee requesting public records, be it for a purpose of running a background check as constituent part of ongoing employment process or in order to prepare a personal-injury lawsuit. Anyway, some officials confess they believe that compliance with the public records laws on several occasions can be costly or time consuming for repositories, meaning either frivolous requests or requesting vast amounts of documents solely with the intent of causing harassment. Whatever they say, there is no alternative for open government, which openness of public records is foundation of. As for for abusing their right to know by certain individuals, there’s an option of imposing bigger fees that can be considered.