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Even crazier: the local courthouse in my home town (in West Virginia) charges $1/page even when you make the copies yourself with your cell phone. Governments

Even crazier: the local courthouse in my home town (in West Virginia) charges $1/page even when you make the copies yourself with your cell phone. Governments are sometimes just like people -- they get addicted to revenue streams and have a hard time adapting when those revenues change or go away.

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comtn 8y ago
It could be said that because they have to physically go and find the document, and hand it over for you to take a photo of is the reason for the costs.
- codedokode 8y ago
  Then the price should be per document and not per page.
- payne92 8y ago
  That would make sense, but in this particular case the fee is for copies of deeds and other public documents that are in bound volumes in the record room. It’s entirely self service.
  - Someone 8y ago
    There still is the cost of making and maintaining those volumes, for building and maintaining the record room, for having somebody check how many photos you made, for billing, etc, etc. With fairly high fixed costs and, likely, demand varying a lot as a function of price, picking a break-even price point isn’t really possible up-front. For example, if they were to charge $1,000,000.— per page, chances are they won’t recover costs, but that doesn’t imply they should ask more. I think governments should just give up on the idea of recovering costs on this kind of service. That may mean some people will benefit more from it than others, but then, be that so. Alternatively, put a reasonably high cap on the ability to query the system.
    - rovr138 8y ago
      On the other hand, you usually pay a fee to get those documents processed and archived.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
lr4444lr 8y ago
Might not be legal. Check your state's FOIA statutes. There are usually stated limits to the charges an agency can put on fulfilling requests.
- eli 8y ago
  FOIA laws generally only apply to the executive branch, not the courts
azernik 8y ago
Sidenote - this hilarious deposition was in a case about this exact issue (fees for copies of public records). https://youtu.be/PZbqAMEwtOE https://youtu.be/PZbqAMEwtOE
- wand3r 8y ago
  This was gold.

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comtn 8y ago

It could be said that because they have to physically go and find the document, and hand it over for you to take a photo of is the reason for the costs.

codedokode 8y ago
Then the price should be per document and not per page.
payne92 8y ago
That would make sense, but in this particular case the fee is for copies of deeds and other public documents that are in bound volumes in the record room. It’s entirely self service.
- Someone 8y ago
  There still is the cost of making and maintaining those volumes, for building and maintaining the record room, for having somebody check how many photos you made, for billing, etc, etc. With fairly high fixed costs and, likely, demand varying a lot as a function of price, picking a break-even price point isn’t really possible up-front. For example, if they were to charge $1,000,000.— per page, chances are they won’t recover costs, but that doesn’t imply they should ask more. I think governments should just give up on the idea of recovering costs on this kind of service. That may mean some people will benefit more from it than others, but then, be that so. Alternatively, put a reasonably high cap on the ability to query the system.
  - rovr138 8y ago
    On the other hand, you usually pay a fee to get those documents processed and archived.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

lr4444lr 8y ago

Might not be legal. Check your state's FOIA statutes. There are usually stated limits to the charges an agency can put on fulfilling requests.

eli 8y ago
FOIA laws generally only apply to the executive branch, not the courts

azernik 8y ago

Sidenote - this hilarious deposition was in a case about this exact issue (fees for copies of public records). https://youtu.be/PZbqAMEwtOE https://youtu.be/PZbqAMEwtOE

wand3r 8y ago
This was gold.