Plan the response to a public records or FOIA request
A search plan, exemption review, fee estimate, and response letter for a public records request, built around your statutory deadlines.
The prompt
Help me plan and draft our response to a public records request.
Governing law: [e.g. "federal FOIA", "state public records act", "local open records ordinance"]
Request text: [PASTE the request exactly as received]
Date received and statutory deadline: [DATES, plus any extension allowed]
Requester type, if relevant to fees: [e.g. "media", "commercial", "individual"]
Where records may live: [email, shared drives, case systems, texts, paper files]
Sensitive content I expect: [e.g. "personnel records", "law enforcement investigation", "attorney advice", "personal data of residents"]
Work through it in this order:
1. Restate the request as a list of distinct record categories. Flag any part that is unclear or overly broad and draft a short clarification email to the requester.
2. Build a search plan: custodians, systems, date range, and search terms for each category.
3. List the exemptions that could plausibly apply under the law I named, what each requires, and what kind of record would trigger it. Describe them generally and mark each [CONFIRM WITH COUNSEL]; do not cite section numbers unless I provide them.
4. Note where redaction rather than withholding is required, and what a withholding log or index should record.
5. Outline a fee estimate approach and whether a fee waiver request needs a decision.
6. Draft the response letter: records released, records withheld or redacted with the basis, appeal rights and deadline, and contact person.
Rules: never invent statute citations, deadlines, or fee amounts; use [ADD] markers. Remind me that withholding decisions should be reviewed by our records officer or legal counsel.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Legal & Compliance prompts
What to fill in
- PASTE the request exactly as received
- DATES, plus any extension allowed
- e.g. "media", "commercial", "individual"
- email, shared drives, case systems, texts, paper files
- CONFIRM WITH COUNSEL
- ADD
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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