§ 202 Fees for searches and copies of documents
VTL § 202 · effective 2028-04-01
1.Except in those cases in which it is provided by law that no fee shall be charged, the fees for searching the records of the department of motor vehicles kept pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and for furnishing copies of documents in said department kept pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall be as provided in this section. Provided, however, that no fee shall be charged any public officer, board or body, volunteer fire company, volunteer ambulance service, or legal aid bureau or society or other private entity when acting pursuant to section seven hundred twenty-two of the county law, for searches or copies of documents to be used for a public purpose.
2.Fees for searches of records. * (a) The fee for a search which is made manually by the department shall be ten dollars.
(a)The fee for a search which is made manually by the department shall be five dollars.
(b)The fee for a search which is made by direct entry by a requester who has been approved for such entry by the commissioner shall be seven dollars.
(c)The fee for a search which is made by means of an electronic medium which has been prepared by a requester who has been approved for such service by the commissioner and which is processed by the department shall be seven dollars.
(d)The commissioner may condition approval for direct entry of a request or use of an electronic medium by a requester upon the establishment and maintenance of an account with the department with a minimum balance established by the commissioner from which fees chargeable to the requester shall be deducted. In addition, the commissioner shall prescribe the specifications and procedures for use of electronic media and may establish a minimum and/or a maximum number of searches which may be contained on any one such electronic medium submission.
(e)For the purposes of this section, a search shall consist of a single entry of an acceptable identifier for the purpose of obtaining a specific category of information relating to a person, vehicle or number plate. The commissioner shall by regulation define such categories and identifiers acceptable for such categories. Except as provided in subdivision three of this section, a search of the record of the department shall include the furnishing of the information disclosed by such search, and with respect to searches made manually by the department, shall include a certification of such record.
3.Fees for copies of documents. The fees for copies of documents, other than accident reports, shall be one dollar per page. A page shall consist of either a single or double side of any document. The fee for a copy of an accident report shall be fifteen dollars. All copies of documents shall be certified at no additional fee. Whenever search of records of the department is required in conjunction with a request for a copy of a document, the fee for such search shall be the fee provided in paragraph (a) of subdivision two of this section. The result of such search will be the locating of the document to be copied, or if no document can be located, a certification to that effect will be the result of the search.
4.Registration lists and title information.
5.Miscellaneous charges. The commissioner upon request may furnish copies of documents and records of searches by means other than first class mail upon prior payment of any additional cost involved in such transmission. Where the cost of such requested transmission cannot be readily determined before transmission, the commissioner may establish a reasonable fee to cover the cost of such transmission. Nothing herein shall be construed to require the commissioner to provide such service.
