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County attorney says AI is increasing FOIL workload; office exploring tools and options
Summary
County Attorney Maury Josephson warned the legislature that FOIL requests are expanding in scope and complexity, in part because members of the public use AI to generate extensive document requests; Josephson said the county can seek narrower requests or charge reproduction fees but is limited by state law on imposing time limits.
County Attorney Maury Josephson told the legislature that the county has seen a marked increase in breadth and complexity of FOIL requests, attributing some of the change to public use of AI tools that can generate broad, litigation‑style records requests. Josephson said the county's software has helped organize responses but that larger, more complex requests still require higher‑level legal review and processing time.
"Members of the public are using AI...to generate FOIL requests," Josephson said, describing examples such as multi‑year requests for every county grant and related vote history. He noted FOIL is governed by state law and that courts set a restrictive standard for when a request is overly burdensome; while the county can seek narrowed timeframes or charge document reproduction fees for particularly costly requests, Josephson said there are practical limits and that staff are considering technological solutions to help locate responsive records. He urged legislators to understand where FOIL time is being spent and outlined that outside contractors or improved search tools might be needed to handle growing demand.
