FOIA Appeal Letter — Paid Consultation on What the Appeal Has to Say
A paid consultation with Sherrod Seward, Esq. on how the appeal should be written, and on which arguments your response letter actually leaves open.
Most appeals fail on their form rather than on their merits. They restate the original request, explain why the records matter to the writer, and never identify a decision the agency got wrong. An appeal is an argument that a particular determination was legally incorrect, made in writing, in time, and in terms a court could later read. You will leave the call knowing which errors your letter actually supports, what each one has to assert, and what the appeal cannot afford to leave out.
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Request the consultation
Six fields. About a minute.
Bring the call one of these
- You are writing the appeal yourself and want to know what it has to contain.
- You have a draft and want it read before it goes.
- You cannot tell which parts of the response are worth challenging.
- You want the appeal written so that it still helps if this ends up in court.
- You want to know what to ask for, not only what to object to.
The four things a FOIA appeal is usually arguing about
An appeal that does its job normally addresses some combination of four things, and says which one it is doing. That the search was not adequate for the request as written. That the exemption cited does not fit the records withheld. That material which could reasonably be separated from exempt material was withheld with it. And that the agency has not identified what it withheld, or on what basis, clearly enough for anyone to test. Which of the four are open to you is decided by the response letter in front of you rather than by a template, and choosing the wrong ones is how a strong matter produces a weak appeal.
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.
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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.
Can I simply write that the denial was unfair?
You can, and it will be answered on that footing. An appeal that argues about the outcome gives the reviewing office nothing to act on. An appeal that identifies a specific determination and says why it was wrong, on the agency's own stated reasoning, does. The difference is not tone; it is whether there is a legal error on the page.
Do you write the appeal, or do I?
The consultation is advice and a written summary — what to argue, what to attach, and by when. If you want this office to draft and file the appeal itself, that is a separate engagement, separately scoped and separately quoted, and the consultation fee is credited against it if this office is engaged on the matter.