Mississippi · Public Records Act

The Mississippi Public Records Act, with its Ethics Commission path built in

AccessPoint manages Public Records Act requests under Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-1 et seq. — the 7- or 14-working-day response standard, the §§ 25-61-9, 25-61-11, and 25-61-12 exemptions, and the Ethics-Commission-to-chancery-court enforcement path — pre-configured for Mississippi and running inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

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Mississippi at a glance

Response standard
Production or written denial under the body's own adopted procedures — at most 7 working days, or 14 working days with a written explanation for the delay
Enforcement
Ethics Commission complaint (no filing deadline; mediation, compliance orders, penalties) then chancery court de novo review
Exemptions
The §§ 25-61-9, 25-61-11, and 25-61-12 exemptions; law-enforcement incident reports are always public
Charges
Fees limited to the actual cost of reproduction, search, and review, payable in advance
Oversight
Mississippi Ethics Commission, with de novo chancery court review on appeal
Languages
English

Built for Mississippi

One platform for the whole access-and-privacy mandate, pre-configured for this regime and running in your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

Public Records Act request lifecycle

Intake to release under the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 (Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-1 et seq.) — the body's own adopted response procedure and the 7- or 14-working-day outer limits — all on Microsoft 365.

The § 25-61-9, -11, -12 exemptions

Track each exemption a public body relies on — investigative, personal, and personnel exemptions among them — while flagging that law-enforcement incident reports themselves remain public regardless.

The 7- or 14-working-day limit

Hold every response to the body's own adopted procedure, and to the statutory outer limit — 7 working days, or 14 with a written explanation for the delay — computed and reminded for you.

Redaction by exemption

Apply the §§ 25-61-9, 25-61-11, and 25-61-12 exemptions line by line on a colour-coded, audit-trailed redaction record, with incident-report fields flagged as always public.

Actual-cost charges

Charge only the actual cost of reproduction, search, and review, collected in advance — with the estimate documented and itemised.

In your own tenant

Every request and record stays inside your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant — no third-party cloud, no cross-border transfers, and no per-user fees.

Ethics Commission enforcement

In Mississippi, a denied requester complains to the Ethics Commission first — not the courthouse.

Most states route a denied public-records request straight to a judge. Mississippi routes it to the Ethics Commission instead. A requester can file a complaint at any time — there's no statutory filing deadline — and the Commission mediates, can order the public body to comply, and can impose a civil penalty of up to $100 per violation where the body acted in bad faith. Only after that does the matter move, de novo, to chancery court. AccessPoint tracks the complaint from filing through Commission order and any subsequent chancery court review.

File anytime — no deadline The Ethics Commission complaint carries no statutory filing window.
Mediation, orders, penalties The Commission can mediate, order compliance, and fine bad-faith denials up to $100 per violation.
Chancery court reviews de novo Either party can escalate, with the court starting the analysis fresh.

Configured out of the box

Installing the us-ms-pra jurisdiction pack seeds your tenant with everything this regime needs — a starting point you can adjust, not a lock-in.

Pack content last reviewed: 2026-09-03

Related guide: FOI Workflow Quick Check
  • The Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 (Miss. Code Ann. § 25-61-1 et seq.) as the legal-authority and citation spine
  • The Mississippi state-holiday calendar and the 7- or 14-working-day response due-date rules
  • The §§ 25-61-9, 25-61-11, and 25-61-12 exemptions mapped and colour-coded for redaction, with incident-report fields flagged as always public
  • Actual-cost fee calculation for reproduction, search, and review, collected in advance
  • The public body's own adopted response-procedure fields, tracked alongside the statutory outer limit
  • The Ethics Commission complaint workflow — mediation, compliance orders, and per-violation penalty tracking
  • The chancery court de novo review workflow for either party's appeal
  • Public Records Act correspondence templates with statutory wording
A jurisdiction pack's detail panel in AccessPoint settings, showing the pack description, version, what's new, and the checklist of items it imports: legal authorities, calendars, request statuses, request types, extension reasons, requestor categories and consultation types Click to enlarge
What a pack looks like in Settings (the Ontario municipal pack shown): the description, the version and what changed in it, and every item it imports with its statutory basis. Anything you have customized is never overwritten on update.

Mississippi Questions

When must a Mississippi public body respond to a records request?
Under its own adopted procedures — but no later than 7 working days, or 14 working days if the body provides a written explanation for the delay. AccessPoint tracks the body's specific procedure alongside the statutory outer limit and flags any response running past it.

What makes Mississippi different — how a denial gets challenged?
Yes. Rather than heading straight to court, a requester files a complaint with the Ethics Commission — at any time, since there's no filing deadline. The Commission can mediate, order compliance, and fine a bad-faith denial up to $100 per violation. Either party can then seek chancery court review, which considers the matter de novo.

What can a public body charge for records?
Only the actual cost of reproduction, search, and review — no flat fees or profit margin — and the body may require payment in advance. AccessPoint calculates the actual-cost estimate and documents it for the requester.

Where does data reside?
Entirely within your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant. Requests, documents, and audit history never leave your control — no third-party cloud, no vendor access, and no cross-border data transfers.

Go deeper

AccessPoint for Alabama A brand-new response clock, layered on Alabama's 1981 Stone balancing test AccessPoint for Alaska Silence is a denial, then a two-step appeal — agency head, then superior court AccessPoint for Arizona Open records on a balancing test, no exemption list FOI request management software The full request lifecycle — computed deadlines, records collection, redaction, audit. AccessPoint vs. GovQA Granicus Records Request Management — requests only, vendor cloud. AccessPoint vs. NextRequest CivicPlus's public-records platform — strong portal, vendor cloud only.

Flat annual pricing, published in full. Every feature in every size — access requests, privacy impact assessments, breach response, complaints, video & audio redaction, and AI Assist. No per-user or per-module fees.

  • Under 500 employees$2,990/yr
  • 500–2,000 employees$7,990/yr
  • Over 2,000 employees$14,990/yr

See full pricing Build the business case

Run the Mississippi Public Records Act in One Platform

Try AccessPoint free for 30 days, pre-configured for Mississippi. No credit card required.

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