WHAT HAPPENS NOW

YOUR INTAKE FORM HAS BEEN RECEIVED BY AUDIT VERITAS.

WITHIN A FEW DAYS

We read what you sent and identify the agency or agencies that would hold the records you describe. Sometimes that is the one you named. Often it is more than one - a city and a sheriff, a department and the vendor it contracts with and an agency and a fusion center ir reports to.

WHEN THE REQUEST GOES OUT

We send it, and we send you a copy. You will have the exact text that was filed, the agency it went to, the date, and the deadline that now runs against them.

From that point the request is a matter of record. It exists whether or not the agency answers.

THE TEN-DAY DETERMINATION

In California, an agency has ten business days to tell us whether it holds responsive records. Other states vary - some are faster, a few are slower, and a handful set no deadline at all. We will tell you which rule applies to yours.

Ten days is for the answer to DO YOU HAVE IT. It is not the deadline for the records themselves. An agency that says yes may take weeks or months to produce.

WHAT COMES BACK

Four things can happen, and all four are informative.

RECORDS. Sometimes more than you expected, sometimes a single page.

NOTHING RESPONSIVE. The agency says it holds no such records. We will ask what search it performed and where. An agency that cannot describe its search has not made one.

A CLAIMED EXEMPTION. The agency has records but is withholding them. This is the most revealing outcome. To withhold, it must cite a specific statute - and in doing so it confirms that something exists.

SILENCE. The deadline passes and nothing arrives. Under California law that is a violation, not an answer. We send a follow-up letter citing the statute and the remedy.

HOW LONG ALL OF THIS TAKES

Weeks for the first determination. Months for a full production from a large agency. Longer if there is a dispute.

We are not going to give you a date, because we would be making it up. What we will do is tell you when something moves and tell you when a deadline passes without movement.

WHAT WE WILL NOT DO

We will not tell you the result means what you hope it means. We will send you what came back and what it says on its face.

IF AN AGENCY REFUSES

Where records are unlawfully withheld, the remedy is a petition in superior court to compel disclosure. There is no requirement to go through the agency first, the agency bears the burden of justifying every withholding, and the statute shifts attorney's fees to the agency when the requester prevails.

That is a separate decision, made case by case, with a written agreement. Filing your request creates no attorney-client relationship and costs you nothing.

IN THE MEANTIME

Two things are worth doing while you wait.

WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU REMEMBER NOW. Dates, times, locations, plate numbers, descriptions, names. Memory degrades and records arrive late. A contemporaneous note is worth a great deal later.

KEEP EVERYTHING. Letters, emails, envelopes, portal confirmations, voicemails.

And if you want, join the forum. Other people are waiting on the same agencies.