Appellate panel: Edmonds eligible to recover attorney fees from agency

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http://www.rcfp.org/news/2005/0811-foi-foireq.html

NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · WASHINGTON, D.C. · Freedom of Information · Aug. 11, 2005


FOI requester wins attorney fees for expedited review

A Freedom of Information Act requester who won a court ruling ordering the government to expedite processing of her records request is eligible for attorney fees, a federal appellate court ruled this week.

Aug. 11, 2005 · Former FBI translator and fired government whistleblower Sibel Edmonds is eligible to recover attorney fees from the agency after successfully petitioning a court for expedited processing of her Freedom of Information Act request, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled Tuesday.

To be eligible for attorney fees in FOI Act litigation, a plaintiff must have "substantially prevailed." Edmonds' expedited processing win met this test, Judge Merrick B. Garland wrote for a unanimous three-judge appellate panel, reversing a district court decision.

Garland sent the case back to U.S. District Court to determine the amount of the fees.

Edmonds requested records in April 2002 pertaining to her firing the previous month from the FBI where she had worked as a contract linguist since September 2001. She was fired after complaining about quality and security problems at the FBI's counter-terrorism language division.
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