JW VERDICT: How long does it typically take for the government to fulfill a FOIA request?
FARRELL: There are cases where we have made what is called a “compelling need argument,” where you say that the subject matter of the request is urgent. It is rare that you meet the “life or limb” qualification, but there are cases when it is a compelling, breaking news story. For example, in the days following the 9/11 attacks, when we were filing FOIA requests in the fall of 2001, we could use a lot of compelling language because 9/11 was a huge attack on the United States and the American public had a right to know what was happening. This, of course, is the favorable extreme. In such a case we may get documents in a matter of weeks, probably the earliest would be three to four weeks. On the other hand, the other extreme is that we sometimes receive documents six, seven, eight years after our initial request, and only then after lengthy and costly litigation.
