FOIA Request and Deadline Tracker
Every sample letter stops at send. This one names the file format you need, then counts the deadline that decides what the agency can still bill.
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Every sample FOIA letter on the internet ends at the word send. That is the moment the statute stops asking anything of you and starts putting dated obligations on the agency, so a template that ends there has given away the half of the process that actually produces records. This pack writes the letter with the delivery format named as its own numbered section. Then it runs the clock: the working-day deadline counted against the federal holiday calendar, and what the agency may still lawfully charge once that date has passed.
It ships filled in for The Cordell Review, an invented nonprofit newsroom that filed six requests to six components of one department on the same Monday in February 2026. Five fell due on 3 March, which is 29 calendar days later rather than 20, because Washington's Birthday landed inside the window. Duplication across all six came to $697.00 at five cents a page. Three weeks on, $526.00 of that was still payable and $167.00 was not, on dates alone, and nobody had argued about it.
The sixth request is the one worth reading. It was answered inside its deadline, in good faith, with scanned images of printouts and no field list. Nothing was denied, so there was no adverse determination and nothing to appeal. Open the pack in River and the agent counts every deadline, logs each response against the numbered section of the request it answers, and reports the four numbers that decide the week. Or download the blank register and letters and work wherever you already do.
What's in the pack
Request Letter, with the format section
The section almost no sample letter has: the system, the fields, the file format and the delivery method, requested under the form or format provision that only binds an agency to what you actually asked for.
Request Register
One row per request, carrying both receipt dates, which one governs, the counted due date, the calendar span, and the holiday that moved it. Plus the two columns no FOIA tracker has: what is still chargeable, and whether remedies are exhausted.
How the Clock Works
The method in five minutes. Working days against the published federal holiday schedule, the ten-day cap when a request is misrouted, and the three dated escapes that let an agency keep its fees.
Fee Waiver Argument
Written to both statutory elements separately, because agencies grant the news media category and deny the public interest waiver routinely. Filed anyway, then watched, since a missed deadline removes the fee without any argument at all.
Response Log
Every contact in and out, joined back to the numbered section of the request it answers. The Unmet Elements column is the mechanism: a release feels like an answer, which is how the missing field list gets lost.
Follow-up Sequence
Four letters tied to dates rather than to impatience. The same words sent one day late ask for compliance instead of a favour, so the register decides which one goes out.
Appeal Letter and Appeal Tracker
One appeal per adverse determination, on one ground. The tracker holds both of an appeal's clocks: your filing deadline from the determination letter, and the agency's own twenty working days to decide.
The four numbers
Open, past due, still chargeable, already exhausted. A desk with fifteen live requests usually cannot say which are past due, and it is arithmetic rather than judgement.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack and let the agent fill it in, or download the blank letters and register as Word and CSV files. The template library holds the rest of the packs.
- 2
Name the components, not the department
Several narrow requests to named offices beat one broad request to a department, because each office runs its own twenty working days and a department has no clock at all.
- 3
Say what should physically arrive
Name the system, the fields, the file format and the delivery method. When a real export does arrive, dataset cleaning and codebook is where the coded columns get documented.
- 4
Then run the clock, not the letter
Count the due date, log every response against what was asked, and read the fee column. Most of what a records desk wins, it wins on dates it wrote down.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Download the whole pack as Word documents and CSV sheets with no signup and no credit card. "Edit with AI" is a separate, optional path for anyone who wants the agent to count the deadlines and keep the register current. Nothing is written until you send it something.
How is this different from a sample FOIA letter?
A sample letter is one document and it ends at send. This is the letter plus the register that dates it, and the register is where the leverage is. Two columns decide the outcome: what the agency may still lawfully bill, and whether a passed deadline has already made an ignored request appealable.
Why does specifying a file format matter so much?
Because an agency owes you the form you asked for, and only that. "Please send electronic copies" is fully and lawfully answered by scanned images of printouts, and nothing was refused, so there is no denial to appeal. Naming the system, the fields and the file format is what makes a refusal something the agency has to write down.
Does a missed deadline really cancel the fees?
For a newsroom it cancels all of them. An agency that misses a time limit may not charge search fees, and may not charge duplication either to a news media, educational or noncommercial scientific requester. Duplication was the only fee that category ever owed, so the department's own fee rule leaves nothing to bill.
Can I use it for state or municipal records?
The letters transfer and the register works, but the numbers do not. Every deadline, fee rule and appeal window in this pack is the federal one. A state public records act sets its own response period, its own fee schedule and its own appeal route, so replace those before filing anything locally.
Does it handle what arrives after the release?
It logs it and points you onward. When the release arrives as thousands of scanned pages, document dump triage indexes it and reports how many pages a keyword search cannot reach. When two documents disagree, conflicting report reconciliation settles which figure the records support. For a redaction pass, document review and privilege is the workspace.
Who is this for?
Reporters, researchers and anyone filing records requests who has been ignored past a deadline and did not know it changed their position. It pairs with interview transcript workup on the same story, and with court docket tracking once the records you were refused start surfacing as exhibits in somebody else's case.
File the letter, then run the clock
Download the blank letters and register as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent count every deadline for you.
Edit with AI