Most of the proof in an ordinary case is held by somebody who is not involved in it. An agency has the file, a hospital has the chart, a former employer has the personnel record, a bank has the statements. Each of them answers to a different rule about who may ask, what the request has to say, how long they have, what they may charge and what they may withhold. This subject sets out how each kind of holder works, and what a person can do when a request is refused, redacted or answered with nothing.
A police report records the officer's own observations, the accounts given by others, and the officer's conclusion. Only the first of those is direct evidence. The report is frequently inadmissible for the truth of what it contains, though it remains valuable for identifying witnesses, fixing times and establishing what was said at the scene.
A redaction removes protected content while leaving the rest of the document usable. It should be visible, it should cite the ground relied on, and the remainder should be produced. Silent removal, whole-document withholding where partial production was possible, and over-broad application of an exemption are all challengeable, usually through internal review.
Providers release records to the patient on request, to third parties on a compliant written authorization, and to anybody under valid compulsory process with the notice the rules require. An authorization has to identify the record, the recipient and the purpose, state an expiry, and carry the patient's signature. Most refusals are refusals of the paperwork rather than of the request.
Retention schedules govern how long each class of record is kept and what happens at the end. They are published by public bodies, required of regulated institutions and adopted internally by most large organizations. Reading the schedule turns an unhelpful nil return into a checkable statement, and identifies which longer-retained record may still answer the question.
Refusals fall into four groups: the request cannot be understood, the holder doubts the requester's authority, the material is claimed to be exempt or protected, and the holder says nothing exists. Each has a different answer, and identifying which one is being made is the first and most important step in responding to it.
A record's former existence is established from the traces it left elsewhere: an index entry, a reference in correspondence, a receipt, a system log or somebody's file note. Its contents are established separately, from drafts, copies, quotations and recollection. Separating the two makes both easier, because the first is usually straightforward and the second is not.
Charges are generally limited to the cost of production rather than the value of the material, and waivers exist in most statutory schemes. Format obligations vary: some schemes allow the requester to state a preference where the holder can readily comply, others require production in whatever form is held. Delivery of large volumes needs to be agreed rather than assumed.
A disclosure request reaches existing records, held by the body asked, in the form in which they are held. It does not compel a body to create a record, to answer a question, to obtain material from elsewhere, or to analyze what it holds. Understanding those limits before drafting turns an unanswerable request into an answerable one.
Two routes reach an agency's own file: a general freedom of information request, and a privacy or subject-access request made by the person the record concerns. The second is usually faster and produces more, because personal information is exempt from general disclosure but must be given to its subject. Precision in describing the material is what decides how long either takes.
Employment records are split between a personnel file, a payroll record, a benefits file, a medical file kept separately by law, and any investigation material held by whoever conducted the investigation. Access rights vary by state and by category. Requesting by category, rather than asking for the personnel file, is what determines whether the useful material arrives.
Third-party records are reached by four routes: a request by the subject of the record, a statutory access right, a subpoena or equivalent compulsory process, and a request made through an agency's own disclosure procedure. Each has different requirements, different timescales and different limits, and choosing the wrong one wastes weeks before producing nothing.
A customer can obtain their own account records quickly and cheaply. Anybody else generally needs the customer's authorization, a subpoena served with notice to the customer, or a court order. The notice regime exists to give the customer an opportunity to object, and skipping it is the most common reason a bank declines to produce anything at all.
