USA FOI - New York

From Gov tech
"On Tuesday, New York Governor George E. Pataki announced that he has signed legislation into law that will strengthen New York State's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The new law sets specific new timeframe requirements that will provide clarity and guidance to local governments and State agencies and make the Freedom of Information Law even stronger"

"The current Freedom of Information Law provides that a government body must respond in writing to a FOIL request in five business days and either provide the requested documents, deny the request, or estimate a time for when a response will be made."

"Under the new law signed by the Governor today, agencies must provide an approximate date that is reasonable under the circumstances. If an agency determines that it will be granting a FOIL request -- but is unable to provide the records within 20 business days after sending an initial acknowledgement letter -- the agency must state in writing the reason(s) it cannot grant the request within the 20 days and provide a specific date when the request will be granted. If an agency fails to abide by these new requirements, the request will be deemed denied and the requestor will have the right to appeal under the current FOIL."