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What to do when your records request comes back denied

muckrock-records-request-denied

Here’s how to diagnose common roadblocks and rewrite your Freedom of Information Law request to get results.

A denied records request is often a fixable one. MuckRock’s guide works through the reasons requests get refused, how to rewrite the language that caused it, and what to do when an agency stalls, over-redacts, or simply stops answering. It is written for FOIA, and every step of it applies to a FOIL request in New York.

Read the full guide: FOIA request denied? Here’s how to fix it. — MuckRock, May 27, 2026.

Questions we get asked most often: our open government Q&A.

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