§ 426.108 Fees charged to locate, review, or copy records.

(a) The Commission will charge no fees for search time or for any other time expended by the Commission to review a record. However, the Commission may charge fees where you request that a copy be made of a record to which you have been granted access. Where a copy of the record must be made in order to provide access to the record (e.g., computer printout where no screen reading is available), the copy will be made available to you without cost.

(b) Copies of records made by photocopy or similar process will be charged to you at the rate of $0.12 per page. Where records are not susceptible to photocopying (e.g., punch cards, magnetic tapes, or oversize materials), you will be charged actual cost as determined on a case-by-case basis. Copying fees will not be charged if the cost of collecting a fee would be equal to or greater than the fee itself. Copying fees for contemporaneous requests by the same individual shall be aggregated to determine the total fee.

(c) Special and additional services provided at your request, such as certification or authentication, postal insurance, and special mailing arrangement costs, will be charged to you at the market rate.

(d) You may request that a copying fee not be charged or, alternatively, be reduced, by submitting a written petition to the Commission's General Counsel (see § 426.103) asserting that you are indigent. If the General Counsel determines, based on the petition, that you are indigent and that the Commission's resources permit a waiver of all or part of the fee, the General Counsel may, in his or her discretion, waive or reduce the copying fee.

(e) All fees shall be paid before any copying request is undertaken.