The Wisconsin Department of Justice is, at times, taking nearly five years to respond to records requests — an unacceptable amount of time, open records advocates say — according to a May 26, 2026 article that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
According to the story:
Some records have taken more than 600 days to release, while others have stretched to nearly 1,800 days in recent years. Attorney General Josh Kaul pointed to long waits for some requests as outliers. Some cases, due to ongoing court action, or a need for redactions, take longer than others.
Generally, the agency said, most requests are resolved within the 10-day guideline.
Records are presumed to be open to the public unless there is a specific statutory exemption or the public interest balancing test applies. Agencies are required to respond to requests “as soon as practicable and without delay,” but the state guidelines do not set a specific amount of time a request must be fulfilled.
Alesha Guenther, a former employee of the state’s Republican Party, requested records related to protests in Madison in 2020, along with others. It took until this year to receive the responsive records, including one request that was handed over after the Journal Sentinel asked the agency about the length of time the department was taking. Her request took 1,706 days, or more than 4½ years, to fulfill.
Carriayn Meindle also waited more than 1,000 days for records related to the cases of Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery, popularized by the Netflix documentary, “Making a Murderer.”
Meindle wanted to look at the documents in the case to draw her own conclusions. She also sometimes posts about cases on her own YouTube page.
She said she would request documents that she knew many others had likely requested as well, and was told each time that the documents had to be redacted. She didn’t understand why they weren’t just sending out documents that had already been redacted instead of going through them again.
Meindle said she’s done requests in other states, such as Illinois, George and Arkansas, and they’ve never taken this long.
“Wisconsin was the worst,” she said.
She’s concerned about the time it takes some records to be filled, especially for those who may need them for an ongoing case.
“How do you fight for your own case if you can’t get your hands on the information that you need?” she asked.
DOJ: Wait times vary
According to data available on the DOJ’s websites, the average number of days to respond to a request has fluctuated greatly from year to year since the department started collecting data in 2014.
Here are the reported response times from the department:
2014: 45 days, 425 responses.
2015: 81 days, 531 responses.
2016: 27 days, 622 responses.
2017: 24 days, 693 responses.
2018: 10 days, 661 responses.
2019: 14 days, 824 responses.
2020: 26 days, 628 responses.
2021: 45 days. 690 responses.
2022: 50 days, 924 responses.
2023: 99 days, 694 responses.
2024: 85 days, 804 responses.
2025: 58 days, 1,165 responses.
As of the end of April, the DOJ had nearly 500 pending requests, ranging from 2021 request dates to more recent requests in 2026. The DOJ publishes data about its records requests online, at www.wisdoj.gov.
While the average wait time is lower, some requests are still taking thousands of days, without much explanation. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters have waited for years on records, with no word on what caused the lengthy wait for records.
In a statement, DOJ spokesperson Riley Vetterkind said the office works diligently to address open records requests. “The Wisconsin Department of Justice proactively posts public records response time reports, and we encourage members of the public to visit our website to view them,” Vetterkind said in an email. “Our team responded to a record number of requests last year – a 174% increase compared to 2014 – with the majority being fulfilled within the 10-working-day guideline.”
One of the issues facing the office is the increasing number of requests, without additional staff to take on the workload, a spokesperson for the agency said. Another is the increasing complexity of requests, which now can require the redaction of police body-worn cameras, dash camera footage and even photographs. That can include hours of footage that has to be reviewed.
The Wisconsin DOJ requested additional staff to help out in the records department, according to the agency, but those positions were not granted in the last state budget.
The staff responsible for handling requests also has multiple responsibilities, including training, issuing records compliance guides, and responding to questions from the public about open meetings and public records, the agency said.
Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said the outlier wait times are concerning, especially because people are receiving information years after they requested it.
“By the time you get the records, you don’t even remember what you wanted them for. You know, it kind of undercuts the whole purpose of the records law, which is to obtain information about the workings of government,” he said in an interview.
“If you can’t do that in a timely fashion, the information isn’t that useful.”
Lueders said he was involved as a reporter in a case against former Gov. Scott Walker during the Act 10 protests, because Walker’s office wasn’t responding to a request for copies of emails. A judge ruled that the records should be turned over quickly because they were of high public interest.
“The judge said this is news now … it’s not going to be news forever, and he ruled in our favor, where the information was released within a month of the request,” he said.
Lueders said because the DOJ is responsible for upholding Wisconsin’s records laws in the first place, it shouldn’t have requests stretching on years.
“It should be setting an example for other state and local agencies, and how seriously it takes that responsibility,” he said.
Eric Toney, the Fond du Lac District Attorney who is running in a rematch against Kaul in the Nov. 3 election, blasted the department for not putting more emphasis on providing records vs. launching a series of cases against the federal government.
“This is another sad example of Josh Kaul taking the Department of Justice backwards and putting partisan politics over basic transparency,” he said in an emailed statement. “As Attorney General, I will take the politics out of the Department of Justice’s decisions by refocusing the office back to its core mission: providing transparency, supporting law enforcement, and protecting our communities.”
Toney doesn’t have any plans for open records listed on his campaign websites but said he plans to address the issue if he takes office.
“As Attorney General, I will make staffing a priority and deliver the transparency that Wisconsin deserves — and that this department provided before Kaul took over,” he said in an emailed statement.
Kaul’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
