WBA NewsroomA wallet-sized summary of the Wisconsin Open Records and Open Meetings law has been developed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and is available as a PDF download. It’s a handy reference which provides a quick explanation in layperson’s terms of Wisconsin’s Open Meetings and Open Records Laws.
The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council has also made it very easy for you, as a reporter, to quickly find out if you should have access to a public record, how to quickly look up case law which may help you, and how to quickly download a form you can use to make an official written request for a record.
You can do quick research on Open Records and download the Open Records request form.
Often, it’s very easy to get a copy of the record you want simply by calling the public body that created it or has custody of it, and paying a reasonable fee for copying the record for you. The Wisconsin Department of Justice has issued guidelines on what records custodians should charge for making copies of records.