Public Information and Inaction - Ten Days in Which the State Shows You Its Documents
The right to public information is the quietest tool in administrative law and the most frequently used: any person, without giving a reason, may demand a document from any public institution, and the institution must release it immediately or within 10 days at the latest. This right precedes almost every dispute over a licence, a procurement, construction supervision or public service - the body's internal correspondence and its decisions in other cases are often precisely the evidence that decides the case.
This page describes how the tool works in practice and how bodies defend themselves: how to write a request so that an answer cannot be avoided, which "secret" is real and which is a pretext, how a refusal and silence are appealed, how to obtain your own personal data and case file, and what happens when a body processes your data unlawfully. Challenging the acts and refusals themselves is covered on other pages.
Updated · Practice area: Administrative law lawyer
Five Typical Requests and How the Body Responds to Each
The type of information determines which refusal can be lawful and which cannot.
From a Public Information Request to Appealing the Refusal - the Stages
Wording the request
The request is written so that "no such document exists" is impossible as an answer: a specific type of document, period, structural unit of the body, form (copy, electronic, extract). No reason is required and the lawyer gives none - a reason hands the body a pretext for refusal. The request goes with proof of delivery or through the electronic system, with the date fixed.
Controlling the deadline
10 days from delivery of the request; the body may extend the period once where the information must be collected from another institution or a large volume must be processed - in writing, with reasons, before the period expires. An extension without grounds or after the deadline is already a breach. The lawyer prepares the inaction complaint on the 11th day.
Analysing the refusal
A refusal must be in writing, cite the ground and the rule, and state how it can be appealed. The lawyer checks: is the cited secret defined by law or by an "internal" rule; does it cover the whole document or a part (partial disclosure is mandatory); is the information already public from another source. About 80% of typical refusals fall apart on these three questions.
Complaint to the superior body or the court
A refusal and inaction are appealed within one month - to the superior body, or, where none exists or the refusal comes from the highest official, directly to court. Information cases in the administrative court are relatively fast, and the burden of proof (why the information is secret) lies with the body.
Parallel routes
The Public Defender is active on public information cases and issues recommendations quickly; on personal data, the Personal Data Protection Service has the power to fine the body. The lawyer uses these routes alongside the complaint, especially when the information is urgently needed for another dispute.
Using the information in the main dispute
The documents obtained are immediately formalised as evidence in the main case: decisions on other applicants (equal treatment), internal conclusions that contradict the act, records of deadlines. An information case is almost never an end in itself - it is preparation.
The Three "Secrets" Bodies Refuse With - and Where Each One Ends
Personal secrecy - personal data - is the most common pretext: a body declares an entire document "closed" because it contains one name. The law says otherwise: personal data are redacted from the document and the rest is released, while an official's data relating to their official activity (name, position, salary, decisions) are not closed at all. Court practice holds this line consistently, and the lawyer's complaint is often a single sentence: "the requested document with personal data redacted".
A commercial secret covers only information that gives a specific person a competitive advantage and was marked as such when submitted to the body - technology, a pricing method, a client base. The price, term and subject of a contract with the state cannot be a commercial secret, because it is the spending of public funds; nor can most documents submitted to obtain a licence. A body that extends "commercial secrecy" to an entire file at the supplier's request is breaking the law.
A state secret covers only information classified under the statutory procedure - with a marking, a decision and a period. "This is an internal document", "it is not yet final", "the proceedings are ongoing" - none of these is a state secret and none is a lawful ground for refusal; for ongoing proceedings the law provides a specific restriction, but it is narrow and temporary. The lawyer asks the same question of every refusal: which article of which law makes this document closed - and the absence of an answer is already the text of the complaint.
What a Public Information and Inaction Case Rests On
- 10 days
- The maximum period for releasing public information from the request; immediately if the information is ready. A single extension only in the cases set by law, in writing, before the period expires.
- No reason required
- The requester is not obliged to explain why the information is needed, and the body has no right to demand a reason or refuse because of one. This rule makes the request an invisible tool for preparing another dispute.
- Partial disclosure
- Where part of a document is closed, the rest is released with the closed part redacted; closing an entire document because of one secret fragment is not permitted. The body must state what was redacted and on what ground.
- One month to appeal
- A refusal and inaction are appealed under the rules for individual acts - within one month to the superior body or the court. For inaction, the period runs from the expiry of the 10-day deadline.
- Access to the case file
- A party to administrative proceedings has the right to inspect their own case file and obtain copies at any stage - a right independent of and wider than public information, to which the "internal document" restriction does not apply.
- Personal Data Protection Service
- An independent body that examines complaints about unlawful data processing and fines the offender (including a state body); the complaint is free and is filed in parallel with court. The data subject has the right to know, correct, erase and halt processing.
What a Public Information Request Must Contain So That It Cannot Be Left Unanswered
- The addressee - the specific public institution that holds the document (not "the state" in general); a wrong addressee must forward the request to the right one, but the deadline is lost.
- A precise description of the document: type (act, minutes, contract, conclusion), date or period, case or application number if known.
- The form requested: copy, electronic version, register extract, inspection on site - and the delivery channel (email, post).
- On personal data: a statement that you are requesting the document with third parties' data redacted - this pre-empts the most common pretext for refusal.
- Without any ground or reason - it is not required and only does harm.
- Proof of delivery: the registry stamp on a copy, the electronic system number or a postal notice - the deadline runs from that date.
Three Public Information Cases
A competitor's licence file behind "commercial secrecy"
A company refused a licence requested the file of a competitor's licence - one issued on the same conditions. The body refused the whole file on grounds of "commercial secrecy". The lawyer: the act issuing the licence, the inspection report and the commission minutes cannot be secret; the competitor's technical documentation might be, but separately and with reasons. The court ordered the body to release the documents with the technical part redacted; the minutes obtained became the main evidence of unequal treatment in the licence dispute.
A body silent after three requests
A citizen asked a municipality three times for the decision to dispose of a courtyard and its grounds, and received no answer. The lawyer challenged the inaction in court and applied to the Public Defender in parallel. The court ordered the municipality to release the information and pay the costs of the complaint; the documents showed the disposal had taken place without a council decision - which became the basis for a separate dispute.
Personal data the body passed to someone else
A person learned that a state agency had passed their data (address, workplace, contact details) to a private company without consent. The lawyer: a data subject request to the agency (to whom, when, on what ground), a complaint to the Personal Data Protection Service, then a damages claim. The Service fined the agency and declared the transfer unlawful; that decision served as the finding of unlawfulness in the damages case.
Questions About Public Information and Inaction
The body told me it releases information "only to an interested person" and asked me to justify my interest. Is that lawful?
No - public information belongs to any person, without stating an interest or a reason, and the body has no right to demand one. The concept of an "interested person" applies to inspection of a case file (which is a wider right), not to public information. The lawyer's reply is one paragraph citing the law, and the refusal is appealed within one month.
I received the information, but half of it is redacted with no explanation why. What do I do?
On partial disclosure the body must state what was redacted and under which law - unexplained redaction is a partial refusal and is appealed the same way. Bodies often use personal data as a pretext to redact officials' names and even the substance of a decision, which is not permitted. The lawyer demands reasons for the redacted part and disputes specific fragments in the complaint.
The body received my application three months ago and nothing has happened. Can inaction be challenged on its own?
Yes - under the General Administrative Code an application must be considered within the statutory period (one month as a general rule), and its unanswered expiry is inaction, which is challenged before the superior body or the court with a demand that the body be ordered to decide and, where appropriate, for damages. In the field of licences and permits silence has an even stronger consequence - deemed approval.
I want the full file of my own case from the body. Do I request it as public information?
Under both routes: inspecting your own case file is a separate right of a party to administrative proceedings, not subject to the "internal document" and "ongoing proceedings" restrictions; in parallel, the full list of your personal data under the data subject's right. The lawyer cites both grounds in one letter so that the body cannot cover one "inadmissibility" with another.
Does an information case need a separate lawyer, or is it part of the main dispute?
As a rule it is part of the same lawyer's work: the information request is the first step in preparing the main dispute, and its timing (10 days, then a complaint) must be aligned with the main dispute's one-month deadline. It becomes a case of its own when the body refuses systematically, or when the information itself is the goal - for a journalist, an organisation, a researcher.
Lawyers for Public Information and Inaction Cases
Public information is the tool with which an administrative dispute is won before it begins - with a correctly worded request and control of the deadline. 15 minutes after your request the coordinator connects you with a lawyer who regularly obtains documents from state bodies and handles inaction cases.
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A Body Withholds a Document, Pleads "Secrecy", or Leaves Your Application Unanswered for Months?
At a free consultation the lawyer tells you whether the refusal is lawful, how to word the request so that an answer cannot be avoided and how to tie the information case to your main dispute. The coordinator's call reaches you within 15 minutes of completing the form.