The Virginia Freedom of Information Act permits any public body to withhold certain records from public disclosure. The Office commonly withholds records subject to the following exclusions (although other exclusions under the Act or the Code of Virginia may also protect a public record from disclosure):<\/p>\n
If you make a FOIA request and it is denied, you need to appeal their decision. It is very simple to do. Depending on what type of word processor you use, will depend on what format you need to download the FOIA Appeal template in.\u00a0Once you have it downloaded, fill in the relevant information as well as your own information and then choose the option that fits your appeal and delete the other options. Your form is now properly filled out according to Virginia State Code and ready to be submitted by Postal Mail, Email or Text.<\/p>\n
The most important thing to remember is to make sure however you want to send them this information, it is in a format that they will accept. While every Government Office has a postal address and uses email as an official form of communications, not all Government Agencies will accept text messages. If you send it by Postal Mail, make sure you get a signature when it is delivered. If you send an email, make sure you \u201c cc or bbc\u201d using your own email address, so you will have a record showing that it was in fact sent and you received your copy back.<\/p>\n
Please click here<\/a><\/span> to download this template in a .doc format. Please click here<\/a><\/span> to open so you can copy and paste it into any document\/email you may need in a plain text format. Please click here<\/a><\/span> to download this template in a PDF format.<\/p>\n Agency Head or Appeal Officer<\/p>\n Name of Agency<\/p>\n Address of Agency<\/p>\n City, State, Zip Code<\/p>\n Re: Freedom of Information Act Appeal<\/p>\n Dear ___________________:<\/p>\n This is an appeal under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, \u00a72.2-3704 et seq.<\/b><\/p>\n On (date), I requested documents under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, \u00a72.2-3704 et seq.<\/b> My request was assigned the following identification number: __________. On (date), I received a response to my request in a letter signed by (name of official). I appeal the denial of my request.<\/p>\n [Optional] The documents that were withheld must be disclosed under the FOIA because\u2026.<\/p>\n [Optional] I appeal the decision to deny my request for a waiver of fees. I believe that I am entitled to a waiver of fees. Disclosure of the documents I requested is in the public interest because the information is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of government and is not primarily in my commercial interest. (Provide details)<\/p>\n [Optional] I appeal the decision to require me to pay review costs for this request. I am not seeking the documents for a commercial use. (Provide details)<\/p>\n [Optional] I appeal the decision to require me to pay search charges for this request. I am a reporter seeking information as part of news gathering and not for commercial use.<\/p>\n If for whatever reason you decide to deny my FOIA request a second time, the only recourse I have left is to take this matter through the Russell County Court system as soon as I can get on their docket.<\/p>\n Thank you for your consideration of this appeal.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Name<\/p>\n Address<\/p>\n City, State, Zip Code<\/p>\n Telephone Number [Optional]<\/p>\n EMail Address [Optional]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Virginia Freedom of Information Act permits any public body to withhold certain records from public disclosure. The Office commonly withholds records subject to the following exclusions (although other exclusions under the Act or the Code of Virginia may also protect a public record from disclosure): Personnel records (\u00a7 2.2-3705.1(1)); Records subject to attorney-client privilege […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,35],"tags":[36],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/oldest-foia-request.png?fit=838%2C448&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfv3Hh-1E5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6335,"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions\/6335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wesaynotomoss3landfill.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}FOIA APPEAL LETTER<\/b><\/h3>\n