Federal Manager's Daily Report

Denials by agencies of Freedom of Information Act led to nearly 1,700 lawsuits over the five years ending in 2014, GAO has said, adding that it was unable to put a price tag on the cost.

The Justice Department and individual agencies incur costs for defending such suits, GAO said, adding that in 112, the plaintiffs “substantially prevailed,” resulting in costs such as attorney’s fees awarded to them as a result of a court award or a settlement.

“Justice officials stated that the department does not specifically track costs for lawsuits in which the plaintiffs substantially prevailed and that its attorneys are not required to track such costs for individual lawsuits,” a report said.

However, it said, 17 of the 28 agencies in the study had a system or process in place that enabled them to provide cost information on 57 of those cases, identifying $1.3 million in litigation-related costs related to them. “The remaining agencies did not have a mechanism in place to track FOIA litigation-related costs where the plaintiffs prevailed. These agencies said costs were not tracked because Justice’s guidance does not require agencies to collect and report costs related to specific lawsuits, or if the plaintiff prevailed as a result of a lawsuit,” it said.

Agencies have come under growing criticism in recent years for unresponsiveness to FOIA requests, resulting in a series of administrative changes and a recently enacted reform law.