5 ILCS 140/3.6

(5 ILCS 140/3.6)

Sec. 3.6. Voluminous requests.

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this Act to the contrary, a public body shall respond to a voluminous request within 5 business days after receipt. The response shall notify the requester: (i) that the public body is treating the request as a voluminous request; (ii) the reasons why the public body is treating the request as a voluminous request; (iii) that the requester must respond to the public body within 10 business days after the public body's response was sent and specify whether the requester would like to amend the request in such a way that the public body will no longer treat the request as a voluminous request; (iv) that if the requester does not respond within 10 business days or if the request continues to be a voluminous request following the requester's response, the public body will respond to the request and assess any fees the public body charges pursuant to Section 6 of this Act; (v) that the public body has 5 business days after receipt of the requester's response or 5 business days from the last day for the requester to amend his or her request, whichever is sooner, to respond to the request; (vi) that the public body may request an additional 10 business days to comply with the request; (vii) of the requester's right to review of the public body's determination by the Public Access Counselor and provide the address and phone number for the Public Access Counselor; and (viii) that if the requester fails to accept or collect the responsive records, the public body may still charge the requester for its response pursuant to Section 6 of this Act and the requester's failure to pay will be considered a debt due and owing to the public body and may be collected in accordance with applicable law.

(b) A public body shall provide a person making a voluminous request 10 business days from the date the public body's response pursuant to subsection (a) of this Section is sent to amend the request in such a way that the public body will no longer treat the request as a voluminous request.

(c) If a request continues to be a voluminous request following the requester's response under subsection (b) of this Section or the requester fails to respond, the public body shall respond within the earlier of 5 business days after it receives the response from the requester or 5 business days after the final day for the requester to respond to the public body's notification under this subsection. The response shall: (i) provide an estimate of the fees to be charged, which the public body may require the person to pay in full before copying the requested documents; (ii) deny the request pursuant to one or more of the exemptions set out in this Act; (iii) notify the requester that the request is unduly burdensome and extend an opportunity to the requester to attempt to reduce the request to manageable proportions; or (iv) provide the records requested.

(d) The time for response by the public body under subsection (c) of this Section may be extended by the public body for not more than 10 business days from the final day for the requester to respond to the public body's notification under subsection (c) of this Section for any of the reasons provided in subsection (e) of Section 3 of this Act.

The person making a request and the public body may agree in writing to extend the time for compliance for a period to be determined by the parties. If the requester and the public body agree to extend the period for compliance, a failure by the public body to comply with any previous deadlines shall not be treated as a denial of the request for the records.

(e) If a requester does not pay a fee charged pursuant to Section 6 of this Act for a voluminous request, the debt shall be considered a debt due and owing to the public body and may be collected in accordance with applicable law. This fee may be charged by the public body even if the requester fails to accept or collect records the public body has prepared in response to a voluminous request.

(Source: P.A. 98-1129, eff. 12-3-14.)