FOIA establishes a legal right of access to government information on the basis of the principles of openness and accountability in government. Before its enactment in 1966, an individual seeking access to federal records faced the burden of establishing a “need to know” before being granted the right to examine a federal record. FOIA established a “right to know” standard, under which an organization or person could receive access to information held by a federal agency without demonstrating a need or reason. The “right to know” standard shifted the burden of proof from the individual to a government agency and required the agency to provide proper justification when denying a request for access to a record. Any person, defined broadly to include attorneys filing on behalf of an individual, corporations, and organizations, can file a FOIA request. For example, an attorney can request labor-related work compensation files on behalf of his or her client, and a commercial requester, such as a data broker that files a request on behalf of another person, may request a copy of a government contract. In response, an agency is required to provide the relevant record(s) in any readily producible form or format specified by the requester unless the record falls within a permitted exemption. Nine specific exemptions can be applied to withhold, for example, classified, confidential commercial, privileged, privacy, and several types of law enforcement information. (See appendix II for an explanation of the nine exemptions.) Since its enactment 50 years ago, FOIA has been amended to increase openness and access to government information. As the overseer of agencies’ FOIA implementation, in October and November 2008, Justice issued guidance to assist federal agencies in implementing the FOIA amendments of the 2007 OPEN Government Act. In September 2013, Justice incorporated in the procedural requirements chapter of the Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act procedures for agencies to follow when responding to FOIA requests. Specifically, the guidance discusses how requests are to be processed— from the point of determining whether an entity in receipt of a request is subject to FOIA, to responding to the review of an agency’s decision regarding a request on an administrative appeal. Agencies are generally required to make a determination on a FOIA request within 20 working days of receiving a request. A request may be received in writing or by electronic means. Once received, the request goes through multiple phases, which include assigning a tracking number, searching for responsive records, processing records, and releasing records. FOIA allows a requester to challenge an agency’s final decision on a request through an administrative appeal or a lawsuit. Specifically, a requester has the right to file an administrative appeal if he or she disagrees with the agency’s decision on their request. Agencies generally have 20 working days to respond to requesters regarding administrative appeals. A requester should generally exhaust their administrative remedies, such as filing an administrative appeal, before a lawsuit can be filed. If a request is denied on appeal, the requester then has 6 years to file a lawsuit pertaining to the request. Further, if a requester substantially prevails in a FOIA lawsuit, the court may assess against the government reasonable attorneys’ fees and litigation costs. Figure 1 provides a simplified depiction of the federal government’s FOIA administrative appeal and litigation process. FOIA assigns Justice the responsibility to develop guidance for federal agencies on the implementation of the law and to oversee the agencies’ compliance with FOIA requirements. Justice also provides training to agencies on all aspects of FOIA and prepares annual summary reports on agencies’ FOIA processing and litigation activities. These activities are carried out by the department’s Office of Information Policy, as follows: Develops guidance. The office develops guidance and best practices documents to assist federal agencies in complying with FOIA requirements. For example, it has developed guidance for ensuring timely determinations on requests; expediting the processing of requests; and reducing backlogs. It also has developed guidance to inform agencies on what information should be contained in their Annual FOIA Reports, to include information on agencies’ overall processing and litigation costs. In addition to the guidance, the office has documented best practices for improving transparency. Oversees agency compliance. To oversee FOIA operations, the office collects information from agencies, including through Annual FOIA Reports and Chief FOIA Officer Reports. These reports include information such as the number of FOIA requests received and processed in a fiscal year, the disposition of requests processed, and total costs associated with processing and litigating requests. Provides training. The office conducts training sessions on a variety of FOIA-related topics. For example, it conducts an annual training class that provides a basic overview of the act. It also offers a seminar for attorneys that handle FOIA litigation, which includes lectures and instruction on, for example, a successful litigation strategy. Hands-on courses focused on the procedural requirements involved in processing a request from start to finish also are offered. Prepares annual reports. As required by FOIA, the office prepares an annual report—Justice’s Litigation and Compliance Report. This report, which is submitted to Congress, describes the department’s efforts during the year to encourage compliance with the act. It also provides a listing of all FOIA lawsuits filed or decided in that year, along with information on the exemptions involved in each case, the disposition of each case, and any court-assessed costs, fees, and penalties. In addition to the aforementioned responsibilities, Justice is responsible for representing federal agencies if they are sued for an action or inaction under FOIA. The department’s attorneys and support staff are assigned to work on each lawsuit. (The agency subject to the lawsuit also plays a supporting role.) Justice’s Civil Division and the 93 United States Attorneys’ Offices handle the defense of the majority of the lawsuits on behalf of other federal agencies. According to the department, the United States Attorneys’ Offices handle about 70 percent of the lawsuits, while the Civil Division handles most of the remaining lawsuits brought against agencies. A small percentage of FOIA lawsuits are handled by other components of Justice, such as the Tax Division. However, if a lawsuit involves multiple agency defendants, a United States Attorneys’ Office may be primarily responsible for the lawsuit. Once a case is assigned to a specific division within Justice, the attorneys use various case management systems to track the lifecycle of the lawsuit (e.g., from receipt of complaint to final disposition). Specifically, Justice identified three case management systems that are used by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Civil Division: The United States Attorneys’ Offices primarily use two systems to track lawsuits—the Legal Information Office Network System (LIONS) and the United States Attorneys’ Resource Summary Reporting System (USA-5). LIONS allows individual Attorneys’ Offices to maintain, track, and report information on pending employee workloads and lawsuit assignments. This system contains data fields for limited, pre-specified case-specific information, such as the amounts of relief requested, estimated, or granted. FOIA lawsuits are specifically identified through a “cause of action” field in LIONS. However, according to Justice officials in the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, FOIA lawsuits can also be included under other categories in this system, such as categories for lawsuits related to the Privacy Act or miscellaneous claims against the government. The United States Attorneys’ Offices also use USA-5 to track lawsuits. Within this system, attorneys do not track the amount of time spent on individual lawsuits, but instead, the amount of time spent on particular program categories. FOIA litigation lawsuits are generally included in the “Program Litigation” category, which is a category that includes programs others than FOIA, such as administrative matters, veterans’ re-employment rights, and the Privacy Act. Justice’s Civil Division uses its automated case management system (CASES) to track lawsuit-related information. According to the department, this system is primarily used for assigning lawsuits to a particular section within the Civil Division; routing case-related mail; identifying the attorneys handling a particular case; and generating statistical, management, and budget information, such as the amount of time spent by an attorney on a particular lawsuit. The system may also include information on the amount of attorneys’ fees and costs paid in a lawsuit, if applicable. As previously mentioned, Justice annually publishes a litigation and compliance report that is required by FOIA. This report provides information on all of the FOIA lawsuits filed in federal district court each year, as derived directly from the federal courts’ docketing systems through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. Justice’s litigation and compliance reports indicated that 3,350 FOIA lawsuits were filed across the federal government between 2006 and 2015, as shown in table 1. The litigation and compliance reports also identify the FOIA lawsuits for which a decision was rendered by federal courts each year. According to the department, the report data are compiled through a summary of court decisions issued by the Office of Information Policy on a weekly basis and a survey of PACER data. The reports provide a description of the disposition in each FOIA case, any claimed exemptions, and any costs, fees, or penalties assessed by the courts. For the 112 selected FOIA lawsuits where the plaintiffs had prevailed, litigation-related costs could not be fully determined. Litigation-related costs associated with such lawsuits are comprised of (1) Justice’s costs for defending the lawsuits on behalf of agencies, (2) the agencies’ respective costs for the lawsuits, and (3) any attorneys’ fees and costs as assessed by a court or based on settlement agreements awarded to plaintiffs. However, Justice does not collect and track all of the costs that its attorneys and staff incur for individual lawsuits in which the plaintiffs prevailed. Moreover, agencies involved in the selected lawsuits did not have mechanisms in place to track FOIA litigation costs where the plaintiff prevailed, thus hindering their reporting of these costs for 55 of the selected lawsuits.