About Recent Changes to FOIA
On January 15, 2015, Governor Snyder signed into law Public Act 563 of 2014. This act is an extensive amendment to FOIA, MCL 15.231 et seq, that changes various requirements stated in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) such as:
- Appeals
- Availability of records to the public maintained on a public body's website
- Charging and calculating fees
- Fee Waivers
- Responding to a request.
This act also mandates that a public body may only charge fees if it has established, and makes publicly available, procedures and guidelines for implementing FOIA. This law also states that a public body must create a written public summary of the procedures and guidelines, which must also be available to the public. Another requirement of Public Act 563 of 2014 is that a public body must use a standard form for detailed itemization of any fee in response to a written request.