§3409 Delayed Notice

Summary

A government agency can ask a judge to delay telling a customer that the agency got or asked for the customer’s bank or financial records. The judge can allow the delay only if the judge finds three things: the agency has legal authority to investigate, the records are likely relevant to a real law-enforcement inquiry, and telling the customer now would likely cause serious harm — for example, endanger someone’s life or safety, let a suspect flee, destroy or tamper with evidence, scare off witnesses, or otherwise badly hurt the investigation or delay a trial. The agency’s request must give enough detail. If the judge agrees, the court can order the bank not to tell the customer and delay notice for up to 90 days. The court may extend the delay in additional periods of up to 90 days each. In certain foreign-account control cases, the court may allow an indefinite delay if notice could endanger lives. When the delay ends, the customer must be given or mailed a copy of the request and a written notice saying when the records were requested, which court ordered the delay, why notice was withheld, and the purpose of the investigation. If records were taken under emergency access rules, the agency must, unless a court approved delay, notify the customer as soon as reasonably possible with the request, the agency name, the date, the purpose, and the emergency grounds. Any papers filed to get the delay must be kept by the court. The customer can ask the court to see those papers, but the court can keep them secret if it again finds the three required reasons for delay.