<aside> <img src="/icons/book-closed_blue.svg" alt="/icons/book-closed_blue.svg" width="40px" /> MuckRock’s User Guide gives you everything to make the most out of MuckRock’s suite of tools. If this has helped you, consider donating to support our work!

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MuckRock Requests is designed to facilitate requests for public records, whether for use in reporting, civic advocacy or personal research. Our Terms of Service explicitly prohibit Privacy Act requests and other requests for private information about private citizens, including yourself.

Because of the public nature of our service, MuckRock Requests is not an appropriate tool for requesting your own personal records. Moreover, MuckRock Requests bases requests on applicable public records laws. In many cases, if you are the subject of the records in question, you have the right to much more data than would be made available to the general public.

We recommend a few resources for requesting information about yourself:

• http://getmyfbifile.com/ will help you generate suitable letters to access any files on you held by the FBI, as well as a number of other US intelligence agencies, including Defense Security Service (DSS), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Secret Service (USSS), Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID)
• Most local police agencies have published a mechanism through which you can access your own arrest record.
• Birth and marriage records are typically held by the county clerk in the jurisdiction where the event occurred.
• County, state and federal courts will all have a “self help” page, like the Self-Help Guide to the California Courts, designed to help you navigate the court system and access records of your own case.
• Educational records, about yourself or your child, are governed by federal laws like FERPA, in addition to any local laws that apply.
• You may need to call the agency to find out how to request records — particularly if you’re seeking juvenile records from an education or child protective services agency.

In many cases you can work with free or low cost legal services to help access the records you need. We recommend searching for either “Legal Aid Society” or “Lawyers Referral Service” along with the name of your county or state, eg.

• a search for “Legal Aid Society Cleveland” quickly turns up The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, a non-profit organization that provides free legal clinics, representation and outreach in Cleveland.
• a search for “miami lawer referral service” turns up multiple results but if you scan them you can quickly find the service provided by the Miami-Dade Bar Association. In general, we recommend finding a referral service that is affiliated with a state or local bar association.

Public Libraries are also a wealth of information about local resources. Many local libraries host Lawyers in the Library nights where you can get help finding your way. They won’t be able to offer actual legal representation, but they can connect you with reliable and appropriate resources.

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