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A new release of data collected by Syracuse University researchers shows that the number of Freedom of Information Act cases filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia went up during the last fiscal year by more than 20 percent.
The data also show that FOIA case filings were up nationwide by 27 percent during the last fiscal year, which ended on Oct. 1.
The FOIA Project is an arm of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University. Researchers developed a system to automatically capture information on FOIA cases filed in federal courts nationwide.
Center Co-Director David Burnham said his team is just starting to analyze the data, so they have yet to determine what might be behind the jump, or which agencies have been involved in the most FOIA litigation.
In D.C. federal court, there were 149 FOIA cases filed between October 2010 and the present. During the previous fiscal year, the FOIA Project tracked 124 new FOIA cases filed in Washington.
There were 378 new FOIA cases filed nationwide during the last fiscal year, up from 297 new cases filed the year before.
The bulk of FOIA cases come through D.C. federal court, making up nearly half of all FOIA cases nationwide.
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