Responsive Records.

What we do

You name the agency and the records. We do the paperwork and the waiting.

You name the agency and the records. We write the request to the statute, calendar the deadline, handle the correspondence, argue the fee, and hand back an indexed file set with a written record of what was produced and what was withheld.

Record classes we have filed for:

• Reports and logs — crash reports, incident and supplemental reports, CAD and dispatch logs
• Audio and video — radio traffic, 911 audio, body-worn and in-car video
• Policy and personnel — policies and general orders, training and personnel files
• Contracts and data — purchase orders, vendor contracts, agency email, automated license plate reader audit logs

We file for firms on either side of a matter. A records request is the same instrument whether you are building a case or answering one.

Fees

Flat where the work is predictable. Contingent where it is not.

Agency charges for search, review, copying and media are billed to you at cost with the agency invoice included. We do not mark up an agency fee.

There is no case setup fee, no per-page charge, no platform fee and no minimum.

Included in every request

No line item for any of the following.

• The request letter, written to the governing statute and to that agency's stated procedure
• The statutory response date, calendared and confirmed to you in writing the day we file
• Every piece of agency correspondence, forwarded the day it arrives
• One narrowing round if the fee estimate comes back high
• Up to 3 follow-ups per request
• The production as the agency sent it — original files, unaltered, delivered alongside the agency's own transmittal and reference number
• A dated log of the request from filing to close: what was sent, what came back, and when
• A closing memo: what was produced, what was withheld, and which exemption the agency cited for each withholding

The fee estimate is where the money is

Contingent. No reduction, no fee.

Agencies routinely quote a number that assumes the broadest possible reading of a request. A narrowed request, filed against the same records, often costs a fraction of the first quote. We work that reduction on contingency, so it costs nothing if the number does not move.

Record of work

Every figure below is counted from our own request log.

That largest production is an automated license plate reader audit log from a Michigan police agency. The first response was a denial. The denial was answered in writing, and the records were released in full. That is the ordinary shape of this work: a first answer of no is a stage in the process, not the end of it. Of the four denials and fee estimates challenged to date, none of those requests were abandoned.

Agency names, request numbers and the underlying correspondence are available on request. We do not publish a client's matter, and we do not publish an open request.

We also keep a running fee database: what each agency charged, per request, per record class, with the invoices. It is why we can usually tell you what a request will cost before the agency does.

How it works

Four steps. You approve every dollar before it is spent.

1. You send it over. Agency, record class, date range, and the case name for your file. A sentence is usually enough.
2. We file within one business day and send you the request as filed, the agency reference number, and the statutory response date.
3. We work it through acknowledgment, extension, estimate, narrowing, payment authorization and production. You approve any agency fee before we authorize it. Nothing is spent without your sign-off.
4. You get the file set, named and indexed, with the closing memo. Invoiced net 15.

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