Two New Data Tools

We have added two new tools that provide greater insight into how FOIA lawsuits are handled in the district courts: Issues Search and Recent Docket Events.

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  A few of the searchable issue tags

  Issues Search

The FOIA Project has been annotating FOIA lawsuits by adding summaries of cases and opinions and by tagging cases by the specific issues involved. Some common tags are associated with search fees, adequacy of search, and the various exemptions claimed by agencies in withholding data.

The new Issues Search tool lets you search by issue from among those cases that have been tagged in this way. The number of such cases, which continues to grow as new cases are added and as annotation efforts extend backward in time, is displayed a the top of the page.

The Issues Search tool lets you find cases with a given tag by typing in the issue. You can also select from a list of all tags currently in use; this list provides the number of times the tag has been applied, either to a complaint or to an opinion/order.

• Recent Docket Events

As also noted in the site update post linked above, case detail pages include a full listing of docket events which is updated daily until the case is closed.

The new Recent Docket Events tool lets you browse recent additions to the dockets of open cases, either nationally or for a specific judicial district.