FAQs

FSM is a unique service providing the most up to date Freedom of Information Act requests that are submitted to State of Michigan Departments/Agencies. Subscribers receive email notification on a weekly basis of the new requests. They will be in a PDF that is searchable and divided by department. FOIA requests will be sent to clients 52 times per year.

The Michigan Freedom of Information Act became law in 1977. A variety of businesses and individuals submit FOIA requests daily to state government. It is a fantastic tool to obtain information. The National Freedom of Information Coalition gives an excellent explanation of the Act.

FSM give subscribers an unprecedented look into the operations of state government, businesses, individuals and interest groups. The news and issues of today often began weeks/months before with a FOIA request. Our subscribers want and need that information, so they are in the know before anyone else.

Each Department/Agency has a FOIA Coordinator responsible for dealing with requests. Generally, they respond to a FOIA request within 5 business days. They can ask for an extension of up to 10 business days. The extension is often used when a Department has many requests and/or the request is complicated.

For a deeper dive on Michigan FOIA, Attorney General Dana Nessel has some great information on her website.

Departments redact, block information, generally to protect the privacy of an individual. For example, Social Security numbers are redacted. The information redacted varies by Department. Some have a very heavy hand on redactions and others a much lighter touch.

Each Department/Agency/Bureau of state government that has a FOIA coordinator is included in the listings. For example, the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) has a coordinator for itself as well as coordinators for others under the LEO umbrella such as MEDC, UIA and Workforce Development.

Yes. For a variety of reasons Departments/Agencies provide their FOIAs at different times. For some it can be a matter of not enough staff or the volume of requests. For example, the Michigan State Police receive well over 10,000 requests a year and the State Land Bank may only receive 12 a year. FSM makes certain that we provide the most up to date FOIAs as possible to our subscribers.

As was mentioned above, check out Attorney General Nessel’s website.

John Wisely, Detroit Free Press wrote an excellent story on FOIA.

FSM requires some work by the subscriber. Subscribers know best what information is most important for them. FSM suggests that at the beginning look at all the FOIA requests. Yes, there are many to review, but as you will find most can be quickly scrolled and dismissed. It is also helpful to have terms prepared to word search the requests. For example, if a subscriber is representing the XYZ Corporation. Search the requests for XYZ and you can quickly see if there are any FOIA requests. The same goes for issues. Pick a term and search the PDFs. The search bar included throughout subscriber areas of the site will return a list of results that include your search terms in the PDF. To find out where, exactly, the terms appear in the PDF you will need to download the FOIA and search using your preferred PDF viewer. 

Over time you will likely learn what Departments have the most pertinent FOIA requests for your purposes. It is generally very easy to review a few Departments.

Open any PDF with your default PDF reader. Press CTRL+F (Windows) or CMD+F (Mac). In the text box, enter your search term. The first match will be highlighted. Press Enter or click the right arrow to navigate between the results.

Please note that that handwritten FOIAs are not word searchable.

If yes, please email FSM at [email protected] and we will get you an answer.