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Didn't know about sunshine request - the website[1] - until I searched for this term!

This is just FOIA. You don't need any special website or process; just Google [(your state) FOIA] or [(your municipality) FOIA officer]. In Illinois, you can simply email free-form requests for documents and start a 10-day clock on the public body's side.

The problem is following up. It's hard to understand the process, and what to do when the public body doesn't respond.

If nothing else, the Sunshine Request site is a good place to get form emails for these requests from.

What you do is: you sue. On my 13th FOIA lawsuit and I have a couple more in the works ;)

Depending on where you're from, it's pretty easy to find a pro bono attorney. In Illinois, the plaintiff's attorneys recoup their costs on a successful win.

Whatever Chaps says about this, take to the bank.

Im not sure if there is a way to verify that the one he is talking about, but for public records request muckrock is great.

https://www.muckrock.com

MuckRock is the gold standard for systematizing FOIA requests imho.

Thank you for sharing this!

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