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All you have to do to make a FOIA request is write a letter to the
agency. (For the quickest possible handling, mark both your letter and the envelope
"Freedom of Information Act Request.") Although you do not have to give a record's name or title, you should identify the records
that you want as specifically as possible to increase the likelihood that the
agency will be able to locate them. Any facts or clues you can furnish about the time, place, authors, events, subjects, and other details
of the records will be helpful to the agency in deciding where to search and in determining which records respond to your request, saving you and
the government time and money.
U.S.
Justice Freedom of Information Home Page
As a general rule, FOIA requesters are not required to state the
reasons why they are making their requests. You may do so if you think it might
help the agency to locate the records. If you are not sure whether the records you want are exempt from disclosure, you may request them
anyway. Agencies often have the legal discretion to disclose exempt information
and, in line with the government's openness policy, they are encouraged to do so whenever possible.
A sample request is shown below. Keep a copy of your request. You
may need to refer to it in further correspondence with the agency.
FOIA Request Letter
- follow the link for a letter that you can fill in the blanks via Acrobat
Reader and mail
off.
FOIA Request
Letter that you can open in a text editor or Microsoft Word
©®
YOUR INFORMATION IS NOT RETAINED ON THIS
SERVER
Click HERE to see to whom to mail it to
get the information that you want.
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