Politics & Government Reviewed 2026-08-22
How to file a FOIL request in New York
Any person can ask a New York state or city agency for its records under the Freedom of Information Law without giving a reason, and the agency has 5 business days to acknowledge the request in writing and 20 business days after that to hand over the records or state, in writing, why it needs more time. Copies cost up to 25 cents a page, the law lists specific grounds an agency can use to withhold a record, and a denial can be appealed within 30 days.
The numbers that matter
- How fast an agency must answer
- 5 business days to acknowledge a request in writing (or grant or deny it outright), then a written determination granting the request or explaining the delay within 20 business days of that acknowledgment (Public Officers Law section 89(3)(a), accessed via nysenate.gov, read August 2026)
- How to appeal a denial
- A written appeal within 30 days of the denial to the agency's designated appeals officer, who must decide within 10 business days; if the agency misses that deadline, the silence itself counts as a denial you can challenge in court (Public Officers Law section 89(4)(a)-(b), accessed via nysenate.gov, read August 2026)
- What copies cost
- Up to 25 cents per photocopy no larger than 9 inches by 14 inches, or the agency's actual reproduction cost for anything else; no fee at all unless preparing the copy takes an agency employee more than 2 hours (Public Officers Law section 87(1)(b)-(c), accessed via nysenate.gov, read August 2026)
- What agencies can refuse to release
- Specific categories under section 87(2)(a) through (i), including personal privacy, active law enforcement investigations, trade secrets, and inter-agency drafts; a denial must be a particularized, specific justification, not just a record's category (Public Officers Law section 87(2), accessed via nysenate.gov, read August 2026)
- Who is covered
- State and municipal agencies performing a governmental or proprietary function; the state legislature and the courts are excluded from this definition and set their own access rules (Public Officers Law section 86(3), accessed via nysenate.gov, read August 2026)
Who can ask, and for what
The Freedom of Information Law, Article 6 of the state's Public Officers Law, covers state and municipal agencies: departments, boards, authorities, and similar bodies performing a governmental function. It does not cover the state legislature or the courts the same way; both keep their own separate access rules (for how a bill actually moves through Albany, see how a bill becomes a law in Albany). The law's own definition of what it reaches:
"Agency" means any state or municipal department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corporation, council, office or other governmental entity performing a governmental or proprietary function for the state or any one or more municipalities thereof, except the judiciary or the state legislature.
The statute does not require a requester to explain why they want a record, and the default is disclosure, not secrecy:
Each agency shall, in accordance with its published rules, make available for public inspection and copying all records, except those records or portions thereof that may be withheld pursuant to the exceptions of rights of access appearing in this subdivision. A denial of access shall not be based solely on the category or type of such record and shall be valid only when there is a particularized and specific justification for such denial.
An agency has to point to the specific record and the specific exemption. It cannot deny a request just because the record belongs to a category it usually keeps closed.
FOIL is based upon a presumption of access. Stated differently, all records of an agency are available, except to the extent that records or portions thereof fall within one or more grounds for denial appearing in §87(2)(a) through (l) of the Law.
The Committee on Open Government is the state agency that issues guidance and advisory opinions on how FOIL is supposed to work; its opinions are not binding on courts but agencies generally follow them.
The deadlines the law actually sets
FOIL's timeline runs in two steps: an acknowledgment, then a real answer. Nothing in the law requires an agency to hand over records the same day it receives a request.
Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within five business days of the receipt of a written request for a record reasonably described, shall make such record available to the person requesting it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written acknowledgement of the receipt of such request and a statement of the approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of the request, when such request will be granted or denied ... If an agency determines to grant a request in whole or in part, and if circumstances prevent disclosure to the person requesting the record or records within twenty business days from the date of the acknowledgement of the receipt of the request, the agency shall state, in writing, both the reason for the inability to grant the request within twenty business days and a date certain within a reasonable period, depending on the circumstances, when the request will be granted in whole or in part.
Five business days only buys an acknowledgment or a promised date, not the records themselves. The 20-business-day figure is the point at which an agency that still needs more time has to put a reason and a specific date certain in writing.
Missing those deadlines is not a loophole. The law treats silence as a decision:
Failure by an agency to conform to the provisions of subdivision three of this section shall constitute a denial.
A blown deadline is legally a denial, which means it can be appealed like any other denial, discussed below.
What it costs to get the records
FOIL is not free, but the law caps what an agency can charge for paper copies, and bars charging anything at all for small jobs:
the fees for paper copies of records shall not exceed twenty-five cents per photocopy not in excess of nine inches by fourteen inches, or the actual cost of reproducing any other record in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (c) of this subdivision.
preparing a copy shall not include search time or administrative costs, and no fee shall be charged unless at least two hours of agency employee time is needed to prepare a copy of the record requested.
Looking up and reviewing the record is on the agency's own time. The clock the fee is measured against only starts once the agency is actually preparing the copy.
What an agency can refuse to hand over
The law lists specific grounds for denial rather than a general discretion to keep things quiet. Among them: material exempted by another statute, an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, active law-enforcement investigations, trade secrets, and a narrow category of inter-agency drafts. A separate, newer set of exemptions (through subsection (p)) covers traffic and toll-camera images and expires on fixed future dates written into the statute itself.
are specifically exempted from disclosure by state or federal statute ... if disclosed would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy ... if disclosed could endanger the life or safety of any person
are inter-agency or intra-agency materials which are not: i. statistical or factual tabulations or data; ii. instructions to staff that affect the public; iii. final agency policy or determinations; iv. external audits, including but not limited to audits performed by the comptroller and the federal government
This is the exemption agencies invoke most for internal deliberations. It runs backward from a list of exceptions: draft memos can be withheld, but the hard data behind them, staff instructions that affect the public, final policy, and outside audits cannot.
None of that forecloses disclosure. New York's Court of Appeals has read the exemptions as giving an agency room to withhold, not an obligation to:
while an agency is permitted to restrict access to those records falling within the statutory exemptions, the language of the exemption provision contains permissive rather than mandatory language, and it is within the agency's discretion to disclose such records, with or without identifying details, if it so chooses.
If you're denied: the appeal, and after that
A denial, including a missed deadline, is appealable inside the agency before it can go to court:
any person denied access to a record may within thirty days appeal in writing such denial to the head, chief executive or governing body of the entity, or the person therefor designated by such head, chief executive, or governing body, who shall within ten business days of the receipt of such appeal fully explain in writing to the person requesting the record the reasons for further denial, or provide access to the record sought.
Denial of access shall be in writing stating the reason therefor and advising the person denied access of his or her right to appeal to the person or body designated to determine appeals, and that person or body shall be identified by name, title, business address and business telephone number. The records access officer shall not be the appeals officer.
Whoever denies the request cannot also decide the appeal. The two roles are required to be different people.
Losing the internal appeal, or getting no answer to it, opens the door to court:
a person denied access to a record in an appeal determination under the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subdivision may bring a proceeding for review of such denial pursuant to article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules ... the court in such a proceeding: (i) may assess, against such agency involved, reasonable attorney's fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred by such person in any case under the provisions of this section in which such person has substantially prevailed, and when the agency failed to respond to a request or appeal within the statutory time
An Article 78 proceeding is the standard way to challenge any state or local agency decision in New York court. Courts can order the records released and, where the agency had no reasonable basis for the denial or blew the statutory clock, make the agency pay the requester's legal fees.
The questions New Yorkers actually ask
Who can file a FOIL request in New York?
Any person. The law does not require a requester to be a New York resident, to explain why they want a record, or to show any particular need; the Committee on Open Government describes FOIL as built on a presumption of access, and the state's Court of Appeals has held that an agency's exemptions are permissive, meaning an agency can choose to disclose even more than the law requires.
How long does a FOIL request take in New York?
An agency has 5 business days to acknowledge a written request and either grant it, deny it, or give an approximate date. If it needs more time to actually produce the records, it has 20 business days from that acknowledgment to state, in writing, the reason for the delay and a specific date certain. Missing either deadline counts as a denial that can be appealed.
How much does a FOIL request cost?
Paper copies are capped at 25 cents per page for anything up to 9 inches by 14 inches; larger or non-paper formats are billed at the agency's actual reproduction cost. An agency cannot charge anything at all unless preparing the copy takes an employee more than 2 hours, and search or review time is never billable.
What can a New York agency refuse to release under FOIL?
Specific categories: records exempted by another statute, material that would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, active law-enforcement investigative material, trade secrets, records that could endanger someone's safety, and a narrow slice of inter-agency drafts that excludes hard data, public-facing staff instructions, final policy, and outside audits. A denial must point to a specific ground, not just a record's general category.
How do you appeal a FOIL denial in New York?
Appeal in writing within 30 days of the denial to the agency's designated appeals officer, who cannot be the same person who denied the request. The agency then has 10 business days to explain the denial in writing or release the records; missing that deadline is itself a denial. After an unfavorable or missing appeal decision, a requester can bring an Article 78 proceeding in state court, where a judge can order disclosure and, if the agency had no reasonable basis for denying access or missed its deadlines, order it to pay the requester's attorney's fees.
The documents
The public records this page draws on. Read them yourself:
- Public Officers Law Article 6, Section 86: Definitions (Freedom of Information Law)
- Public Officers Law Article 6, Section 87: Access to Agency Records (fees, exemptions, presumption of access)
- Public Officers Law Article 6, Section 89: General Provisions Relating to Access to Records (response deadlines, appeals)
- Committee on Open Government Advisory Opinion FOIL-AO-19516 (presumption of access; appeal-notice requirement, 21 NYCRR 1401.7)
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