Service Description

Public records can transform a loose timeline into a story with depth. This workshop takes you into the world of public documents and shows how to identify where your subject’s life intersects with records you can request. **Finding what to ask for** Your timeline and list of associates become powerful tools for spotting the key points where government agencies hold information that matters. Learn how to recognize these opportunities and understand what kinds of records may exist behind the scenes. **Making the request work for you** Filing a public records request is an art. In this session FOIA experts walk you through how to craft clear targeted requests and how to navigate delays, denials and partial responses. You will learn strategies that increase your chances of getting documents which reveal details impossible to find anywhere else. This workshop gives you a practical system for turning the FOIA process into one of your strongest investigative tools. We will give an overview MuckRock Requests and DocumentCloud, both incredibly useful tools for FOIA requests and analysis.