Documents in FOIA Requests Must Be ‘Searchable,’ Federal Judge Rules

Law Technology News – “The federal government must provide documents “in a usable format” when it responds to Freedom of Information Act requests, a federal judge in Manhattan has ruled. Southern District of New York Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, after faulting the government for offering “a lame excuse” for delivering non-searchable documents, ruled for the first time that federal agencies must turn over documents that include “metadata,” which allows them to be searched and indexed.”

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