Practical Suggestions for Dealing with Public Availability of SEC Comment Letters

The SEC recently initiated its previously announced program to make staff comment letters relating to filings under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as company letters responding to these comment letters, publicly available on its website. The SEC is now releasing letters related to SEC-reviewed registration statements and reports filed after August 1, 2004. In the future, the SEC will release letters not earlier than 45 days after the staff has completed its review.

SEC comment letters and company responses have potentially been available in the past, but only pursuant to a request under the Freedom of Information Act. As a result, these letters were not readily available to the public. Although the SEC has been releasing comment letters and company responses as a result of ongoing FOIA requests by Global Securities Information, Inc. since December 2003, availability has been limited to subscribers to GSI’s LIVEDGAR service. The SEC will