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In our township, we continue to receive multiple FOIA requests a week, and it is very difficult to process those requests and get the documents to the requestor within five days. Are we required to produce the documents this quickly?
No. Under the Freedom of Information Act, you are required to respond to the request within the initial 5 business days by doing one of the following:
- Grant the request
- Deny the request
- Partially grant and partially deny the request
- Issue notice of extension for an additional 10 business days
The Act is silent about providing the actual documents within the initial 5 business days (or even 15 business days if an extension is issued). When the request is processed and granted—either in whole or in part—we recommend that the FOIA coordinator provide a good faith estimate of when the documents will be available. This estimate should consider:
- The FOIA coordinator’s available time to search and locate responsive records
- Other non-FOIA duties
- Time needed for redactions and exemption review
- Staff availability for copying and duplication
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