MUST EXIST™ AUTOPSY
The request asked for everything.
The agency answered with a fee quote.
We rebuild it on screen.
Autopsy A Live Public Records Request Class, Taught on One Failed Flock Filing
- A failed request, line by line.
- The rebuild, in front of you.
- Retention pulled before drafting.
- The custodian, found.
- Stall patterns, named and countered.
For residents, reporters, and counsel.
Live on Zoom. Sixty minutes. Twenty-five seats. $59.
This class teaches records practice, not law. You own every filing decision. Counsel owns every legal conclusion. That division of responsibility is the engagement.
Built from three decades of public records practice,
then from what the agencies wrote back.
Most public records requests fail for boring reasons. They ask for too much at once. They go to the wrong office. They hand the custodian an easy way to say no. Then a fee quote arrives with a number on it that ends the project before it starts.
This class takes one of those requests and performs an autopsy on it. A real filing, one that came back as a fee quote instead of records. We read it line by line and find every place it gave the agency an exit.
Then we rebuild it while you watch. We pull the retention schedule before drafting a single word, because knowing how long a record is required to exist changes what you are able to ask for. We find the actual custodian instead of the general inbox. We name the stall patterns you are going to meet and write the answer to each one before you meet them.
Sixty minutes, live on Zoom, twenty-five seats. You can ask questions the whole way through, and the useful ones usually come from somebody describing a denial they got last week.
This class teaches records practice, not law. You will leave able to draft a request that survives a custodian, and you will still own every decision about what to file. If you would rather skip the learning and have the requests filed for you, that is the campaign, not this.
LICENSE PLATE READER RECORDS REQUESTS
We take a bad request apart on screen.
Most people write a public records request the way they write an email, or they paste one out of a search result. It comes out broad and polite, which makes it easy for an agency to answer with nothing at all. A fee quote arrives, or a letter saying no records exist, and that is where the project stops.
This class is the autopsy on one of those requests.
We put a real filing on screen, one that failed and deserved to, and work it through from the first draft to the reply that came back. You see how it was built, why it died, what it should have said instead, where it should have been filed, and what a good answer to the agency looks like the same day it arrives.
If it isn't in writing, it didn't happen. That goes for their side and yours.
Why do most public records requests fail?
Not because the agency is hiding something, most of the time. They fail because of how they were written.
A request that asks for "all records relating to" a topic gives the custodian a legitimate reason to send back a large number instead of a document, and that number is usually the end of it. A request that asks the agency a question, rather than asking for a record, gets a lawful refusal, because an agency has no obligation to answer questions. And a request built on a statute number somebody half remembered gives the whole thing away, because once one citation is wrong the custodian can wave off the rest.
Every one of those is fixable in a sentence. That is what the hour is for.
What does the class actually cover?
The method, fast. Every request in this method starts from a decision somebody made under a written rule. You find the rule, work out what paperwork it produces whenever somebody follows it, and ask for that paperwork by name. Trading "all records relating to" for a named document is most of the difference between a request that gets answered and a request that gets priced.
A bad request, on screen. We take one or two real filings and read them line by line. You see where the scope invited the fee, where a bullet point asked a question instead of asking for a record, and where an unverified citation handed the agency a reason to dismiss all of it.
The rebuild. Same agency, same target, rewritten in front of you. The request gets narrower and harder to refuse at the same time, which is the part nobody believes until they watch it happen.
The filing. Why the retention schedule gets pulled before a word is drafted, because how long a record is required to exist changes what you are able to ask for. How to find the custodian who actually holds the file, and why sending it to a general inbox costs you weeks. Why how you file matters as much as what you file.
The reply. We read what came back out loud. Every stall has a name, and once you can name the one in front of you, the answer is a paragraph you send that afternoon instead of a week you spend being angry.
Your questions. The last stretch belongs to you. Bring your agency, bring the denial letter, bring the fee quote you got last month.
Is this class about Flock and license plate reader records?
The worked example is a plate camera filing, because that is the request people are getting turned down on right now and because those programs generate a clean paper trail to point at. If your city bought its cameras from Flock Safety, this is the file you are trying to open.
The method underneath it is not specific to cameras, though. The same three moves work on a contract, a training record, a disciplinary file, or anything else an agency wrote a rule about. People show up for the plate readers and leave able to file on whatever they wanted in the first place.
Who should take this class?
Residents who found cameras or a contract in their own town and want the paperwork behind it. Commissioners who have to vote on a renewal and would rather read the file first. Reporters who keep filing and keep getting nothing back. Lawyers who want to see how a records campaign gets built before a client asks them to run one. And anybody who has filed a request, watched it die, and never found out why.
You do not need any experience. That is the whole point of the method, which runs on paperwork any member of the public is entitled to file.
Who should skip it?
If you want to understand the surveillance debate, skip this and read the free method instead. It covers the argument, the case law, and the limits, and it costs nothing.
If you want somebody else to do the filing, that is the Must Exist Campaign, not this class. Come here to learn it, go there to have it done.
What does it cost and how does it run?
| Format | Live on Zoom |
| Length | Sixty minutes, questions included |
| Seats | Twenty-five, so questions actually get answered |
| Price | $59 |
| Refunds | Full refund up to 48 hours before your session. Inside 48 hours, no refund. |
| Recorded | Yes |
| Credit | This is a working class, not accredited continuing legal education. Lawyers are welcome, but do not plan on reporting hours. |
Why is one hour enough?
Because the method is not complicated. It is only unfamiliar.
You find the rule the agency wrote for itself. You work out what paperwork that rule has to produce. You ask for that paperwork in language the agency cannot widen back out. You file it with the right person in a way that leaves a timestamp. Then you read the reply for its pattern rather than its tone.
All of that fits inside an hour. What does not fit is doing it well on your first try, which is why the class ends by telling you where to go next instead of pretending you are finished.
What this class will not do
- It will not give you legal advice. I am not a lawyer, I will say so more than once while it is running, and where a question turns on your own facts the answer is a lawyer in your state.
- It will not promise your agency produces anything. Some agencies hand over the file. Some certify that no records exist. Both of those are useful, and neither one is guaranteed.
- It will not argue about surveillance. We spend the hour on what an agency wrote down and whether it did what it said it would do. That question has an answer. The bigger one does not, at least not in sixty minutes.
- It will not teach you anything unlawful. Everything in this class is paperwork any member of the public is entitled to file.
I am not a lawyer, and this class teaches records practice, not law. Nothing here is legal advice. Records law varies a great deal from one state to the next and from one set of facts to the next. If your situation turns on your own circumstances, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state.
FAQs
Do I need to be a lawyer?
No. You need to be able to read a form and keep a calendar.
Does this work outside Florida?
Bring your state. The method does not change across state lines, only the statute does, and an hour with several states in the room is where people stop assuming their law reads like somebody else's.
Do I need a target agency before I show up?
No, but the hour is better if you have one. If you are sitting on a denial letter or a fee quote, bring it to the questions at the end.
Is this class only about Flock and plate cameras?
No. Plate cameras are the worked example because the paper trail is unusually clean, and because a public records request is the only thing that has actually moved that issue anywhere. The method underneath works on any decision an agency made under a written rule.
I have filed requests before. Is this too basic?
Here is the test. If a request of yours has ever come back as a fee quote and you could not tell which sentence caused it, there is an hour of value here. If you already pull the retention schedule before drafting and can name three stall patterns on sight, you know this material and should save your money.
Whose bad request are you taking apart?
Mine, mostly, plus examples with the names taken out. Nobody gets held up by name for having filed a weak request. That is not the lesson, and it would be a lousy thing to do.
Will I leave having filed something?
No. That is not what an hour buys. You leave able to write one, and knowing what to do when the reply comes back worse than you hoped.
Does this count as CLE credit?
No. This is a working class, not accredited continuing legal education, so do not plan on reporting hours. Lawyers are welcome and a fair number come anyway, usually because a client is about to ask them to run a records campaign and they would rather watch one get built first.
Is this legal advice?
No. Process training. If a question turns on legal interpretation I will say so out loud and point you to a lawyer in your state.