Additional Means to Handle Delay

Aside from filing an administrative appeal or lawsuit (see the discussion in the preceding section), you should consider alternative ways to possibly speed up a request that is taking too long.

One alternative is contacting the agency’s FOIA Public Liaison Officer and inquiring into the status of the request. Note that at any time while your FOIA request is pending you can request the agency provide you with an estimated response date. The FOIA actually requires agencies to provide you with a request tracking number for any request that will take longer than 10 days to process along with, upon request, a response date estimate.¹¹

If you are not having any success getting in touch with a FOIA Public Liaison Officer or are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can also consider contacting the Office of Government Information Services.  

As mentioned earlier, you can also attempt to amend your request in some fashion to help expedite the process. This can include narrowing the scope of your request, requesting document releases on a rolling basis or asking the agency to process and disclose the less complex portions of your request first. As always, any modifications to your original request should be formalized in a written communication with the agency.

¹¹ See id. at § 552(a)(7).