A. A government authority shall pay to the financial institution assembling, reproducing or providing any financial record of a customer a reasonable fee for such costs, including copying costs and labor costs, to be paid prior to the time the record is released.

B. For purposes of this section, the following fees shall be deemed reasonable:

1. Search and processing costs. Reimbursement for search and processing costs shall be the total amount of direct personnel time incurred in locating and retrieving, reproducing, packaging and preparing financial records for shipment or delivery. The rate for search and processing costs shall be no more than Twenty-two Dollars ($22.00) per hour per person for clerical or technical personnel, computed on the basis of Five Dollars and fifty cents ($5.50) per quarter hour or fraction thereof, and no more than Thirty Dollars ($30.00) per hour per person for management or supervisory personnel, computed on the basis of Seven Dollars and fifty cents ($7.50) per quarter hour or fraction thereof, and shall be limited to the total amount of personnel time spent in locating and retrieving documents or information or reproducing or packaging and preparing documents for shipment where required or requested by a government authority. If itemized separately, search and processing costs may include the actual cost of extracting information stored by computer in the format in which it is normally produced, based on computer time and necessary supplies. Personnel time for computer search may be paid for only at the rate specified in this paragraph;

2. Reproduction costs. Reimbursement for reproduction costs shall be for costs incurred in making copies of documents required or requested. The rate for reproduction costs for making copies of required or requested documents shall be twenty-five cents ($0.25) for each page, including copies produced by reader/printer reproduction processes. Photographs, films, computer tapes and other materials shall be reimbursed at actual cost;

3. Transportation costs. Reimbursement for transportation costs shall be for necessary costs, directly incurred, to transport personnel to locate and retrieve the information required or requested, and necessary costs, directly incurred solely by the need to convey the required or requested material to the place of examination; and

4. Directly incurred costs. A financial institution also may receive reimbursement for costs incurred solely and necessarily as a consequence of searching for, reproducing or transporting books, papers, records, or other data, in order to comply with legal process. If a financial institution has records that are stored at an independent storage facility that charges a fee to search for, reproduce, or transport particular records requested, these costs shall be considered to be directly incurred by the financial institution.

Added by Laws 1979, c. 191, § 6, emerg. eff. May 17, 1979. Amended by Laws 1991, c. 128, § 12, emerg. eff. April 29, 1991; Laws 1996, c. 346, § 4, eff. Nov. 1, 1996; Laws 2001, c. 338, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2001; Laws 2010, c. 314, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2010.