USING FOIA

Journalists seeking public documents often find themselves lost in a maze of rules and paperwork. How can you work the system and keep denials to a minimum? These tips from Will Evans of the Center for Investigative Reporting are from the IRE Journal.

Request early and often
Follow up on daily government stories by asking for public records, even if you don't know where they might lead. "Think ahead about what can be uncovered even after the original story has run its course," Evans says.

Get to know your friendly FOIA officer
"Calling before you file can help you find the right person and e-mail or fax number," Evans writes, "so your request doesn't bounce from office to office, eating up time." Every agency has its quirks, he says, so learn how they prefer to deal with requests: via online form or e-mail, to a central office or a specialized one. When you get help, say thanks.

Expedite
Ask for expedited status to bump your request to the front of the line. You won't always get it, but you can try to show "compelling need" by pointing out that you're informing the public about government activity. That happens to be the language the FOI Act uses to define "compelling need" and appears tailormade for journalists, Evans says.

More is more
File additional, specific FOIAs to the agencies that are slow in responding to your original requests. "Even if I didn't get everything," Evans says, "I figured I could still finagle a document or two." And he did.

Get the logs
If you're seeking congressional correspondence, use logs to find subject lines and even control numbers. Then request specific documents instead of a broad category of correspondence. "I think this tactic sped up the process," Evans says.