Illinois Transparency Laws: FOIA Requests, Fees, and Appeals

To file an Illinois FOIA request, send a written request to the public body’s designated FOIA officer describing the records you want; the agency then has five business days to produce them or explain a denial. The request can go by email, fax, certified mail, or an online portal, and no particular form is required. If the agency denies the request, overcharges you, or misses its deadline, you can take the dispute to the Public Access Counselor in the Attorney General’s Office or straight to circuit court.

What You Can Request

The Freedom of Information Act defines public records broadly. Any document a government body creates, receives, or uses in the course of public business qualifies, regardless of format: paper files, emails, databases, audio recordings, maps, photographs, budget spreadsheets, payroll data. The only blanket exclusion is junk mail.¹

“Public body” covers all legislative, executive, administrative, and advisory bodies at the state and local level. State universities, townships, villages, school districts, park boards, and their subcommittees all fall under FOIA. If a government entity spends tax dollars or exercises public authority, it almost certainly qualifies.¹

How to Submit the Request

Every public body in Illinois must designate at least one FOIA officer to handle records requests. Most agencies post that officer’s contact information on their website. You can submit a request by email, fax, certified mail, or online portal where one exists.²

A strong request describes the records clearly. Specific dates, names, and document types help the FOIA officer locate files without flagging the request as too vague. You do not need to explain why you want the records. The one time you do need to give a reason is when you’re asking for a fee waiver, in which case you have to show how release serves the public interest rather than a personal or commercial purpose.³

How Long the Agency Has to Respond

The clock starts the day after the agency receives your written request. For a standard request, the public body has five business days to either provide the records or issue a denial. If the records are spread across multiple locations or the search is extensive, the agency can take an additional five business days, but it must notify you in writing and explain why.⁴

Requests flagged as “commercial purpose” get a longer window: 21 business days. Under Illinois law, a commercial purpose means using the records for sale, resale, or advertising. News outlets, nonprofits, and academic researchers are generally exempt from the commercial label when their principal purpose is informing the public or conducting research.¹

What It Costs

Illinois caps standard black-and-white copies at 15 cents per page for letter or legal size, and the first 50 pages are free. Color copies or nonstandard sizes can be billed at the agency’s actual reproduction cost. Certifying a document costs no more than $1.³

Electronic records follow a different fee structure when the request is classified as voluminous. For non-PDF electronic files, fees can reach $20 for up to 2 megabytes, $40 for up to 4 megabytes, and $100 for anything larger. PDF files use a more generous scale: $20 for up to 80 megabytes, $40 for up to 160 megabytes, and $100 beyond that. For commercial requests, agencies may also charge up to $10 per hour for staff search time after the first eight hours, which are free.³

If you believe the fees are inflated or inconsistent with the statute, that overcharge is treated as a denial of access. You can challenge it through the same channels available for any other FOIA violation.³

What the Agency Can Withhold

Not every government document is available to the public. Section 7 of the FOIA lists dozens of specific exemptions. The most commonly invoked ones:

Personal privacy information whose disclosure would be a clearly unwarranted invasion, such as Social Security numbers, medical records, or the home addresses of certain employees. Information about a public employee’s official duties is never considered a privacy invasion.
Law enforcement investigative files that, if released, would interfere with an active case, reveal a confidential source, endanger someone’s safety, or expose specialized investigative techniques.
Records that another law specifically bars from disclosure, including student records protected by FERPA and health information protected by HIPAA.
Trade secrets and proprietary commercial information submitted to a government body that would give competitors an unfair advantage if released.

⁵

When a document contains a mix of public and exempt information, the agency cannot withhold the entire file. It must redact only the exempt portions and release everything else. A heavily redacted response is not the same as a denial.⁵

If You Are Denied, Overcharged, or Ignored

Two routes are open to you. The faster one goes through the Public Access Counselor; the stronger one goes through the courts.

Request for Review by the Public Access Counselor

The Public Access Counselor (PAC) is an attorney in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office who runs a bureau dedicated to resolving transparency disputes.⁶ You must file your Request for Review within 60 days of the final denial. It needs to be in writing, signed, and include a copy of your original FOIA request along with any response the agency sent you.⁷

One important limit: if the agency classified your request as commercial, you generally cannot seek PAC review of the denial itself, though you can still challenge whether the commercial classification was correct.⁷

The PAC reviews the facts and can issue a binding opinion that compels the public body to release records. The Attorney General’s Office can take the public body to court if it refuses to comply.⁶

Lawsuit in Circuit Court

You can skip the PAC entirely and file suit in circuit court seeking an injunction or a court order to produce the records.⁸

If you win, the court must award you reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. That fee-shifting rule matters because the public body absorbs the litigation expense when its denial was unjustified. Where the court finds that a public body willfully and intentionally violated the FOIA or acted in bad faith, it must also impose a civil penalty between $2,500 and $5,000 for each violation. If the body still refuses to comply after 30 days, the court can add up to $1,000 per day until the records are produced.⁸

1
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 140/2
2
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 140/3.5
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 140/6
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 140/3
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 140/7
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Office of the Illinois Attorney General. Public Access Counselor
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 140/9.5
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 140/11