Montana · Public Records Act

The Montana Public Records Act, with its constitutional right to know built in

AccessPoint manages Public Records Act requests under MCA § 2-6-1001 et seq. and the constitutional right to know (Mont. Const. art. II, § 9) — the acknowledgment and fulfillment clocks, the individual-privacy balancing test, and district-court enforcement — pre-configured for Montana and running inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

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Montana at a glance

Response standard
State agencies acknowledge within 5 business days; complex requests must be fulfilled within 90 days, or 6 months for the largest (HB 100, 2025)
Enforcement
No administrative appeal — sue in district court, with attorney fees for a prevailing requester
Exemptions
No exemption list — withholding is decided by the individual-privacy balancing test under the constitutional right to know
Charges
Labour capped at $25 per hour, first hour free; a $5 filing fee applies
Oversight
Montana district courts; a prevailing requester recovers attorney fees
Languages
English

Built for Montana

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 Montana Public Records Act (MCA § 2-6-1001 et seq.) — the constitutional right to know, the acknowledgment and fulfillment clocks, and production — all on Microsoft 365.

The individual-privacy balancing test

Montana has no exemption list. Every withholding is decided by weighing the constitutional right to know against the individual's privacy interest in the specific record. AccessPoint documents that balancing analysis for every redaction.

The 5-day, 90-day, 6-month clocks

Acknowledge within 5 business days, and fulfil complex requests within 90 days — or 6 months for the largest, under the 2025 HB 100 amendments — computed and reminded for you.

Redaction by privacy interest

Apply the individual-privacy balancing test line by line on a colour-coded, audit-trailed redaction record — each redaction documented against the specific privacy interest it protects.

Capped labour charges

Charge labour at up to $25 per hour with the first hour free, plus the $5 filing fee — computed and itemised on request.

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.

No exemption list

Montana has no list of exemptions — every withholding is a privacy balancing test.

Montana's right to know is constitutional, not merely statutory: Mont. Const. art. II, § 9 guarantees the right to examine documents of public bodies. The Montana Public Records Act doesn't pair that right with a list of exemptions the way most states do. Instead, every withholding is decided case by case, weighing the public's right to know against the individual's interest in privacy for that specific record. There's no catalogue to consult — just the balancing test, applied consistently. AccessPoint documents that analysis for every record withheld or redacted, so the reasoning is on file if it's ever challenged in court.

No exemption list to consult Every withholding is a case-by-case balance, not a lookup against a catalogue.
5 days to acknowledge, 90 to fulfil Complex requests get up to 90 days — or 6 months for the largest, under 2025's HB 100.
Judicial enforcement only No board or ombudsman — a denied requester sues in district court and can recover fees.

Configured out of the box

Installing the us-mt-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 Montana Public Records Act (MCA § 2-6-1001 et seq.) as the legal-authority and citation spine, grounded in the constitutional right to know (Mont. Const. art. II, § 9)
  • The Montana state-holiday calendar and the 5-business-day acknowledgment and 90-day / 6-month fulfillment due-date rules under HB 100 (2025)
  • The individual-privacy balancing-test documentation for every withholding, in place of an exemption list
  • Montana labour charges — capped at $25 per hour with the first hour free, plus the $5 filing fee
  • Complex-request tracking that distinguishes the standard 90-day deadline from the 6-month deadline for the largest requests
  • The district-court enforcement workflow, including attorney-fee recovery documentation for a prevailing requester
  • Montana timeliness tracking and the acknowledgment/fulfillment due-date reminders
  • Public Records Act correspondence templates with statutory and constitutional 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.

Montana Questions

When must a Montana agency respond to a records request?
State agencies must acknowledge the request within 5 business days. Fulfilling it can take longer: complex requests have up to 90 days, and the largest requests up to 6 months, under the 2025 HB 100 amendments. AccessPoint tracks all three clocks and flags a response running past them.

What makes Montana different — no exemption list?
Yes. Montana's right to know is constitutional (Mont. Const. art. II, § 9), and the Public Records Act doesn't pair it with a list of exemptions. Every withholding is instead decided by balancing the public's right to know against the individual's privacy interest in that specific record. AccessPoint documents that balancing analysis for each redaction.

What can a Montana agency charge for records?
Labour is capped at $25 per hour, with the first hour free, and a $5 filing fee applies. AccessPoint calculates the charge and itemises it against those caps.

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 Montana Public Records Act in One Platform

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

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