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name: brazil-records-requests description: Public records requests under Brazil's Access to Information Law (LAI). Use for Fala.BR filings, e-SIC, and CGU/CMRI appeals.

Brazilian public records requests (LAI)

Brazil's Access to Information Law, Lei 12.527/2011, universally called the LAI, is one of the stronger transparency statutes in Latin America and one of the most under-used by reporters. Most denials are not legal defeats. They are drafting failures that a differently worded request would have avoided.

This skill covers the full cycle: choosing the body, drafting, filing, tracking, and the four-level appeal chain.

When to use

• Drafting a request to any Brazilian government body
• Deciding which body and which portal actually holds the records
• Diagnosing a denial and deciding whether to appeal or refile
• Writing an appeal at any of the four levels
• Planning the timeline of an investigation that depends on records
• Training reporters on LAI practice

Do not use for

• US records requests, use foia-requests
• Court case data, which in Brazil is mostly public through other channels (DataJud, e-SAJ, PJe) and rarely needs a records request
• Data already published under transparência ativa (see "Check first" below)

Language

Respond in the language the reporter writes in. Draft anything addressed to a Brazilian public body — the request itself, appeals, follow-ups — in Portuguese, whatever language the conversation is in.

Portuguese is not a validity requirement: LAI art. 10 and Decree 7.724/2012 art. 12 require the requester's identification and a description of the information, and neither mandates a language or authorizes denial for using another one. It is a practical one. The clerk reading the request works in Portuguese, and a request that is not understood gets bounced as generic under Decree 7.724, art. 13, I — which costs the full 20 days and a refile. Where the receiving body publishes its own filing rules, check them; subnational practice varies.

Check first: is a request even necessary?

Art. 8 of the LAI obliges agencies to publish core categories of information on their own initiative. Filing for something already public wastes 20 days and signals inexperience to the agency.

Check, in order:

1. Portal da Transparência (portaltransparencia.gov.br), federal spending, payroll, sanctions, benefits
2. Dados abertos (dados.gov.br) and the agency's own open-data page
3. PNCP (pncp.gov.br), federal, state and municipal procurement since 2021
4. Painel Lei de Acesso à Informação (CGU), request statistics by agency
5. Busca de Pedidos e Respostas (CGU), published federal responses can show how an agency describes its own data. Sensitive, personal, classified, or otherwise restricted information may be redacted or excluded. A missing result does not prove that no earlier request exists.
6. Achados e Pedidos (achadosepedidos.org.br), Abraji and Transparência Brasil's archive of requests and responses across jurisdictions

Step 5 is the single highest-value habit in Brazilian records work. Reading prior responses from the same agency teaches you its internal vocabulary, which is what determines whether your request is understood or bounced.

Step 1: Identify the body and the portal

There is no single filing system. The portal follows the body.

| Body | Where to file | | --- | --- | | Federal executive (ministries, agencies, autarquias, federal state-owned firms) | Fala.BR (falabr.cgu.gov.br), gov.br login required | | States and the Federal District | Each state runs its own e-SIC; some have joined Fala.BR | | Municipalities | Municipal e-SIC; smaller cities often accept email or in-person only | | Judiciary | Each court's own SIC, under CNJ rules | | Ministério Público | Each MP's own SIC, under CNMP rules | | Legislature | Câmara, Senado, and each state assembly and city council run separate systems |

Practical consequences:

• Filing with the wrong body costs the full 20 days. The agency will answer that it does not hold the information, and under art. 11, §1º, III it should indicate who does, but frequently does not.
• When you are unsure which of two bodies holds the record, file with both. There is no penalty and no cost.
• Sub-national practice is uneven. Many municipal systems are broken, unstaffed, or require in-person filing. Budget extra time and keep evidence of failed filing attempts; that evidence supports later escalation.
• CGU and CMRI appeals only reach the federal executive. For state and municipal denials, the last administrative step is usually the local controladoria or ouvidoria, and after that the courts.

Step 2: Draft the request

What the law lets you refuse to explain

Art. 10 §3º forbids agencies from requiring the reasons for a request.

Do not explain that you are a journalist, do not name the story, do not describe what you plan to do with the data. It is legally unnecessary and it invites the request to be routed to the press office instead of the records unit. Filing as a private citizen is normal practice.

What the request must contain

• Requester identification (name and a valid ID document, CPF is common but not mandated by art. 12; a user already identified on Fala.BR does not need to re-disclose it), anonymous filing is not available
• A specific description of the information sought
• The delivery format you want

For a federal-executive request filed outside Fala.BR, add a physical or electronic address for communications. Decree 7.724/2012, art. 12, IV requires it. Other bodies can have different local rules.

What makes a request survive

Be specific about the record, not about the subject. Agencies hold documents and databases, not topics.

| Weak | Strong | | --- | --- | | "All information about environmental fines" | "The complete IBAMA sanctions database (autos de infração) issued between 01/01/2020 and 31/12/2024, in CSV, containing the fields already published in the agency's open-data release" | | "Contracts with company X" | "The full text of contracts and their amendments signed between the ministry and CNPJ 00.000.000/0001-00 since January 2023, with contract numbers and SEI process numbers" | | "Documents about the decision" | "Process number 00000.000000/2024-00 in full, including technical opinions (notas técnicas) and dispatches" |

Techniques that work:

• Ask for the database, not a report. Requesting an existing table in CSV or XLSX avoids the "additional analysis work" objection, because the agency only has to export what it already has.
• Cite the SEI or process number whenever you have one. It removes all ambiguity about scope.
• Bound the request by date and by field. Unbounded requests draw the "disproportionate" objection.
• Ask for the data dictionary too. A dump without field definitions often cannot be used.
• Split a broad question into several narrow requests. Each is judged separately, so one refusal does not sink the rest, and each starts its own 20-day clock in parallel.
• Ask for the existing digital format. If the information is stored digitally, agree to receive it in that format under LAI art. 11 §5º. For a dataset, request its existing CSV, XLSX, or other digital export. Do not demand conversion of a document that exists only as a PDF.

Use templates/pedido-inicial.md for the general form and templates/pedido-base-de-dados.md when the target is a database.

Step 3: Deadlines

Under art. 11:

• Immediate, when the information is readily available
• Otherwise 20 days to grant access, state the reasons for refusal, or say the body does not hold the information and indicate who does
• Extendable once, by 10 days, with express written justification communicated to the requester (art. 11 §2º)

So the realistic worst case for a first answer is 30 days. Silence does not route through the same channel as a reasoned denial, see "Step 5: The appeal chain" for the federal-executive procedure (reclamação, not a direct appeal).

Service is free; agencies may charge only for reproduction costs, and low-income requesters are exempt on declaration (art. 12).

Plan investigations backwards from this: a request filed in March with a full appeal chain may not resolve until August.

Step 4: Diagnose the denial

Almost all denials fall into a few categories. The right response differs for each, appealing a denial that should have been refiled wastes months.

Decree 7.724/2012 applies only to the federal executive. The first three grounds below use that Decree. For state, municipal, judicial, legislative, and Ministério Público bodies, check the local rule before characterizing a denial or citing the Decree.

| Denial | Basis | Response | | --- | --- | --- | | Generic request | Federal executive: Decree 7.724/2012, art. 13, I | Refile, narrowed. Faster than appealing. | | Disproportionate or unreasonable | Federal executive: Decree 7.724, art. 13, II | Refile in slices, or appeal if the volume claim is implausible | | Requires additional analysis, interpretation or consolidation of data | Federal executive: Decree 7.724, art. 13, III | Appeal. If it knows where the source information is, the agency must identify that location (art. 13, parágrafo único). Ask it to state whether it has that knowledge and to identify the source if it does. | | Personal data | LAI art. 31 | Appeal, requesting the record with personal fields redacted. Partial access is the rule, full withholding the exception. | | Classified | LAI arts. 23–24 | Appeal, demanding the classification instrument (termo de classificação), its date, level and authority. The maximum restriction periods are 5 years for reservada, 15 for secreta, and 25 for ultrassecreta. Check whether an earlier event ends the restriction. | | Body does not hold it | LAI art. 11, §1º, III | Ask which body does, the agency is required to say, then refile there | | Silence (federal executive) | Decree 7.724/2012, arts. 22–23 | Reclamação to the monitoring authority, not a direct appeal, see Step 5. | | Silence (other spheres) | Local LAI regulation | Usually an immediate appeal under LAI art. 15; confirm the state, municipal, judicial or legislative body's own rule, Decree 7.724/2012 binds the federal executive only. |

Two provisions worth knowing by heart:

• Art. 21: information necessary to the judicial or administrative defense of fundamental rights cannot be withheld, and information about conduct implicating human rights violations by state agents cannot be restricted. This defeats many classification claims in cases involving police, military or prison records.
• Art. 14: you are entitled to the full text of the denial decision. Request it. Agencies often refuse informally, by email, without a formal decision that can be appealed, demanding the decision forces the issue.

Step 5: The appeal chain

A reasoned denial goes up four administrative levels. Each has its own window, and missing one closes the chain.

Reasoned denial
   │  10 days to file
   ▼
1. Immediate superior authority          → decides in 5 days   (LAI art. 15)
   │  10 days
   ▼
2. Agency head (autoridade máxima)       → decides in 5 days
   │  10 days
   ▼
3. CGU, federal executive only          → decides in 5 days   (LAI art. 16)
   │  10 days
   ▼
4. CMRI, final administrative recourse  (LAI art. 16 §3º)

Silence from a federal executive body does not enter that chain directly. It goes through a separate reclamação step first:

Silence past the deadline (30 days after filing, at the earliest)
   │  10 days to file
   ▼
1. Reclamação to the monitoring authority → decides in 5 days  (Decree 7.724/2012, art. 22)
   │  if unsuccessful, 10 days
   ▼
2. Recurso to CGU                         → decides in 5 days  (Decree 7.724/2012, a