Not legal advice
This describes how the process generally works. Deadlines in your case may differ. If something has been filed against you, talk to a lawyer.
What an agency has to prove
What the record shows about when a petition succeeds, and what evidence has carried one.
Section 209 lists factors but does not say how much is enough. The decided cases do. This page is drawn entirely from published orders and is meant to be equally useful to a records officer deciding whether to file and a requester deciding how to answer.
Volume alone has not been the test
Tooele City prevailed against a respondent on 21 requests, and the Committee said plainly that 21 was not sufficient on volume; the finding rested on his communications. The University of Utah lost on more than 200. Request count is the first statutory factor, not the standard.
Requests predating the statute cannot be counted
Section 209 took effect May 3, 2023. In the Cooperstein decision the Committee found most of the requests at issue predated enactment and could not be weighed retroactively. That alone defeated the petition.
Allegations of hostility need corroboration
In the Treasurer's case the Committee granted the petition but declined to credit the agency's evidence of hostile communications, finding it rested on uncorroborated testimony. In Tooele, documented threatening communications carried a petition that the request count could not.
The showing must be made against each respondent
The Lieutenant Governor's Office asked that four requesters be treated as a single vexatious actor on the theory they were acting in concert. The Director held that Section 209 uses singular terminology throughout and requires an individualized, fact-specific showing as to each respondent.
A public purpose in the requests cuts against the petition
Section 209(9) directs the decisionmaker to weigh the scope, nature, content, language, and subject matter of the requests. In the Clara matter the Director found the requests had an articulated public purpose, evidenced by the audits and statutory reforms they prompted, and so could not be deemed an abuse of the right of access.
Mitigation shortens the order rather than defeating it
Utah County asked for the statutory maximum against a respondent on a record of 435 requests. The Director granted six months, citing the public-interest value of some requests, good-faith participation in the process, letters of support from outside organizations, and the absence of any prior petition. The same reasoning cut the Treasurer's request from twelve months to seven.
Not appearing is costly
One respondent neither submitted a written statement nor attended. The Committee noted it had no choice but to accept the agency's evidence at face value. Nothing in the statute delays a decision because a respondent stays silent.
The evidence that carried the granted petitions
Agencies that prevailed did not rely on characterization. They filed affidavits from the people doing the work, usually a city recorder or a department head, and documented the burden in numbers.
Utah County supported its petition with more than 500 pages of exhibits and an average processing time of 28 days per request against 7.1 days for all other requesters. Logan City's recorder estimated more than 500 requests since 2016, with over 100 in a single year, and staff testified that entire shifts went to processing them. The Treasurer's Office set 43 requests in one year against 8 from the office's next most frequent requester.
Each of those is a comparison rather than a raw count, which is what the statutory language about substantial interference with operations actually calls for.
What relief has been granted
Orders have run from six to twelve months against the statutory maximum of one year. The decisionmaker has repeatedly given less than the agency asked for. A granting order must state its reasons, describe the specific conduct found vexatious, and advise the respondent of the right to seek judicial review.
§ 63G-2-209(8)Everything here comes from published orders. Each case links to its decision. If a petition has been decided that is not in our tracker, please tell us. The full tracker →