FOIA Appeal Deadline — Paid Consultation on the Date Your Appeal Is Due
A paid consultation with Sherrod Seward, Esq. on the one date that decides whether your appeal is considered at all.
There is no single FOIA appeal deadline. The statute sets a floor — an adverse determination has to tell you about the right to appeal, and the period the agency sets may not be less than ninety days from the date of that determination — and the period that actually binds is the one in that particular agency's own FOIA regulation, which may be longer. You will leave the call knowing which regulation governs your letter, what event started the clock, the date the appeal has to be in by, and what is still available if that date has gone.
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Request the consultation
Six fields. About a minute.
Bring the call one of these
- You have a denial letter and no confidence in the date on your calendar.
- The letter states a period and you want to know whether that is the operative one.
- You cannot tell whether the clock runs from the letter's date or from the day it arrived.
- The deadline may already have passed and you need to know what is left.
- You are deciding between appealing now and going straight to court.
Where the date actually comes from
Three sources, read in that order. The statute requires an adverse determination to notify you of the right to appeal and fixes the floor for the period at not less than ninety days from the date of that determination. The agency's own FOIA regulation then states the period that binds it, which can be more generous than the floor but not shorter. The letter itself supplies the start date, and often a tracking number the appeal has to quote. Reading all three against your own paper takes minutes, and it is the step people skip in favour of assuming the first one alone.
This office has been the plaintiff, not only the drafter
Law Offices of Sherrod Seward, PLLC v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
No. 3:25-cv-00057 (W.D.N.C.), filed January 2025
This office has been the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act case, not only the drafter of the request. When an agency declined to produce records, the firm filed suit in its own name under 5 U.S.C. 552 to compel production.
A pending matter is described here as a fact about this office's own experience. It is not a result, it does not predict anything about any other case, and every case is decided on its own record. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
How it runs
- Send the enquiryThe form below. Six fields, about a minute.
- Pay the consultation fee$500, on the firm's secure payment page. Credited in full against the fee for the engagement if this office is engaged on the matter.
- The consultationThe call itself. Bring the request, the response letter and the envelope — deadlines run from what the paper says.
- A written summaryWhat was decided, what the next step is, and the date it has to happen by.
Watch first
Questions people actually ask
What do I actually get for the fee?
The $500 is the fee for the consultation itself and for the written summary that follows it. It is not a retainer, and it does not include drafting or filing a FOIA request, an administrative appeal, a licence application, a delisting petition, a federal court complaint, a trademark application, a response to a USPTO office action, or a post-registration maintenance filing - each of those is separately scoped and separately quoted. Government, agency and court filing fees, any agency search, review or duplication fees, and any USPTO filing fees, are not included and are payable to the government, not to this office. On a government contract matter it likewise does not include preparing or certifying a claim to a contracting officer, a request for equitable adjustment, a termination settlement proposal, an agency-level protest, a protest at the Government Accountability Office, an appeal to an agency board of contract appeals, or a complaint in the United States Court of Federal Claims - each of those is separately scoped and separately quoted.
Is this legal advice?
The consultation is. This page is not — it is general information about federal practice, and reading it creates no relationship with this office. Sending this form does not create an attorney-client relationship. No attorney-client relationship is formed until this office and you have signed a written engagement agreement.
Can you tell me what my chances are?
You will get a candid assessment of what your record supports and where it is thin, which is the useful version of that question. What you will not get is a percentage. Every matter is decided on its own record by a government officer or a judge, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What happens if you cannot help?
You will be told so on the call, and told where the matter actually belongs. That happens often enough to be worth saying out loud.
The letter gives me a number of days. Is that the real deadline?
Usually, and it is still worth checking, because the check is quick and the consequence of being wrong is total. Agencies sometimes send template language that does not match their own current regulation, and the regulation binds. It also matters which event the period runs from: a determination dated one day and posted several days later gives you less time than the envelope suggests.
The deadline has passed. Is that the end of it?
Not necessarily, and this is worth an honest look rather than an assumption in either direction. Depending on what the agency did and when, there may be a route through a fresh and better-drafted request, or the agency's own failure to meet the statutory time limits may already have changed your position. What is not available is proceeding as though the date did not pass, and you will be told plainly if that is where the matter stands.