How to get records from any state or local government in New York, written for citizens, not lawyers.
for the government to acknowledge your request
to provide the records after acknowledgment
for the Appeal Officer to answer your appeal
to sue after a denial. Watch the clock.
New York State’s Freedom of Information Law begins with the following:
“The legislature hereby finds that a free society is maintained when government is responsive and responsible to the public and when the public is aware of governmental actions. The more open a government is with its citizenry, the greater the understanding and participation of the public in government.
The people’s right to know the process of governmental decision-making and to review the documents and statistics leading to determinations is basic to our society. Access to such information should not be thwarted by shrouding it with the cloak of secrecy or confidentiality. The legislature, therefore, declares that government is the public’s business and that the public, individually and collectively and represented by a free press, should have access to the records of government in accordance with the provisions of this article.”
All government records are presumed to be available to the public. You have the right to inspect or obtain copies of reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books, manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, recordings, videos, letters, microfilms, computer tapes or discs, rules, regulations or codes.
Every government entity is supposed to have a designated Records Access Officer responsible for processing Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests. Typically, the Village Clerk, Town Clerk, or City Clerk is the Records Access Officer. In many cities and counties, you have to file your request with a department head.
You can file a FOIL request by sending an email to your local clerk or to a specific department head. Be as specific and brief as possible regarding what records you are requesting. Your request should be a short, focused paragraph and not multiple pages long. Some local governments encourage you to use their FOIL request form, which may be helpful, but you are not required to use their form. Our FOIL Toolkit writes the request for you: answer a few questions and paste the letter into an email.
Got questions? Contact us at mail@nyopengov.org.
Within five business days, your request should be acknowledged in writing by whomever you sent it to.
The government has 20 business days from acknowledgment to provide the records, which can be extended for reasonable circumstances with a deadline date provided.
If, after 30 calendar days, your request has been ignored or you have not received the documents requested, you can file an administrative appeal. Every local government has a designated FOIL Appeal Officer; your local clerk should be able to provide contact information.
In many municipalities, the Appeal Officer is the town attorney, city attorney, county attorney, and sometimes the town supervisor. To appeal, you can simply forward an email to the Appeal Officer stating that 30 days have elapsed and your FOIL request has been ignored, denied in full or part, or that the deadline keeps getting pushed back. The Appeal Officer has ten business days to respond. Sometimes filing an appeal helps move your FOIL request forward. The FOIL Toolkit also writes appeal letters, including one for requests that were simply ignored.
If your appeal is unsuccessful or your request has simply been ignored, you can hire an attorney to file what is called an Article 78 lawsuit. You only have 120 days from the date of your appeal denial, or from the date of your FOIL request if it was ignored, to file. This is a very short time period, so you really have to be watching the clock.
While government records are presumed to be open, some items are exempt and do not have to be disclosed. Common reasons a FOIL request may be denied:
Inter-agency materials are a big loophole, which oftentimes is the reason for denying requests for internal emails.
For hard copies, a fee of 25 cents per page can be charged. To avoid the fee, you can request just to view the records, or ask to receive them electronically, for which a fee is typically not charged. For large requests, your records may be placed on a disk or thumb drive, and you can be charged its cost.
There is also the 2-hour rule: if copying takes more than 2 hours, the government can charge the hourly rate of the lowest-level employee for the copying work instead of 25 cents per page. They cannot charge for search or review time, only copying time.
To avoid fee disputes, state a fee limit in your request, such as: “If the fees involved in completing this request are estimated to be more than $20, please advise before completing the request.”
We answer FOIL questions from New Yorkers, free. Search our answered questions or ask your own.
