2018 Year in Review

Happy New Year! 2018 was a very busy year for the OPRA team at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden.

Here's a look back on some of the highlights...

• Partner CJ Griffin argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court two times, representing amicus curiae in Brennan v. Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.
• The Appellate Division issued a published opinion in Scheeler v. Atlantic County Joint Municipal Insurance Fund, granting our client's appeal and ruling that one does not need to be a New Jersey citizen in order to access records under OPRA.
• In a published opinion, the Appellate Division ruled in our client's favor in Wronko v. New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and affirmed the lower court's decision that the NJSPCA was subject to OPRA. They say that transparency is the best disinfectant--shortly after the ruling and a damning report by the State Commission of Investigation, the Legislature stripped the NJSPCA of its police powers.
• We sued the City of Newark for our long-time client, Steve Wronko, and gained access to it's Amazon HQ2 Proposal.
• We filed the first lawsuit of its kind in NJ seeking access to records within Facebook accounts held by public officials and we won.
• We made a new relationship with Reclaim The Records and helped them gain access to New Jersey's Death Index, which they used to create an awesome website for use by genealogists, historians, researchers, and journalists.
• We successfully represented Natural Resources Defense Council in a lawsuit against the City of Newark seeking records relating to the lead contamination in Newark's drinking water.
• We sued and helped The Record gain access to a councilman's racist chain emails and the video of the Paramus school bus crash.
• We represented Libertarians for Transparent Government and sued to obtain the separation agreement that Rutgers University had with its former athletic director, Julie Hermann.