A. Records maintained in the office of the county clerk are available to be searched without charge during regular business hours.

B. County clerks:

(1) may charge reasonable fees for conducting searches and for reproducing or permitting reproduction of their records as well as for certifying documents;

(2) shall not charge fees in excess of one dollar ($1.00) per page for documents eleven inches by seventeen inches in size or smaller;

(3) may require advance payment of fees before making copies of public records;

(4) shall not charge a fee for the cost of determining whether any public record is subject to disclosure; and

(5) shall provide a receipt, upon request.

C. County clerks shall establish reasonable fees for conducting searches and for reproducing or copying records maintained at the office of the county clerk.

History: Laws 1886-1887, ch. 10, § 6; C.L. 1897, § 3958; Code 1915, § 4785; C.S. 1929, § 118-107; 1941 Comp., § 13-112; 1953 Comp., § 71-1-12; 2011, ch. 134, § 13.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Cross references. — For delivery of certified copies by county clerk, see 4-40-5 NMSA 1978.

The 2011 amendment, effective July 1, 2011, rewrote this section to permit county clerks to charge fees for conducting searches and reproducing records.

Recording Act governs real property records request. — Where plaintiff corporation sought all of Lea county's real property image and index records, the production provisions of the Recording Act, 14-8-1 to -17 NMSA 1978, rather than those of the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), 14-2-1 to -12 NMSA 1978, governed the county's obligation in responding to plaintiff's records request, because IPRA creates a records inspection scheme of general application granting, with various exceptions, a right to inspect public records of this state, and the Recording Act more specifically provides a mechanism by which prospective purchasers can examine real property records, and places on county clerks associated duties to make these records available and searchable for the public. TexasFile LLC v. Board of Cty. Comm'rs of Lea Cty., 2019-NMCA-038, cert. denied.

No electronic production requirement in the Recording Act. — Where plaintiff corporation filed a complaint alleging that Lea county's fee demand for electronic copies of real property records was unreasonable based on "reasonable fee" provisions appearing in the Inspection of Public Records Act, 14-2-1 to -12 NMSA 1978, and the Recording Act, 14-8-1 to -17 NMSA 1978, and where plaintiff requested a declaratory judgment declaring the county's quoted fees unreasonable as a matter of law, the district court did not err in dismissing plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, because the Recording Act, as the more specific statute, governed the county's production obligation with respect to plaintiff's record request, and the Recording Act imposes no requirement on the county to produce its documents electronically. TexasFile LLC v. Board of Cty. Comm'rs of Lea Cty., 2019-NMCA-038, cert. denied.