NJ OPRA Blog

CJ Griffin, partner and director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., successfully represented the Trentonian newspaper in an appeal relating to three Ewing Township officers who were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the civil rights of a teenager during a use of force incident. A copy of the opinion can be found here.

The Trentonian had sought internal affairs (IA) reports relating to the incident, as well as copies of all IA reports for each officer dating back to 2010. The trial court granted access to the IA ...

CJ Griffin, Partner and Director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, participated in an interview by the ACLU-New Jersey titled “What Is The Open Public Records Act And How Does It Impact New Jersey?” Griffin, who is Vice President of the ACLU-NJ Board of Trustees, discussed the importance of the Open Public Records Act and holding those in power accountable. OPRA remains important today and for the future.

To view the article, click here.

To watch the video of the interview, click here. 

On November 16, 2022, Governor Murphy signed Executive Order (EO) No. 311, which exempts all name change orders filed with the New Jersey Department of the Treasury after 1948 from the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The EO aligns the Treasury Department’s records system with the Judiciary’s, which amended court rules in 2021 to ensure that all name changes records are confidential and that name changes do not need to be publicized. The goal of both the court rule change and EO 311 is to protect the privacy of those seeking gender-affirming change changes.

The New Jersey Attorney General has published a database of all of the major discipline reports that police departments have released this week in response to Law Enforcement Directive 2020-5. Although the AG is heralding the disclosures as “an important and necessary step to build greater public trust,” we are already identifying discrepancies. Here is another troublesome one from Lower Alloways Creek Police Department, in Salem County.

According to Lower Alloways Creek Police Department’s 2020 Annual Major Discipline Report, officer Jared Adkins “was terminated ...

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision upholding Law Enforcement Directive 2020-5, the Attorney General set a deadline of August 9, 2021 for agencies to make major discipline disclosures by posting on their websites “the identity of each officer subject to final discipline, a brief summary of their transgressions, and a statement of the sanction imposed” for all major discipline imposed after 6/15/2020. These disclosures are exposing how police departments will easily evade the very little transparency that AG Directive 2020-5 provides to the public.

As NJ Advance ...

On June 7, 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Attorney General by upholding Law Enforcement Directives Nos. 2020-5 and No. 2020-6, which ordered law enforcement agencies throughout the state to annually publish the names of police officers who were either terminated, demoted or suspended for more than 5 days.  We previously blogged about the Directives here and here.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner delivered the opinion of a unanimous court finding that Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal had the authority to issue the Directives, which are, “consistent with ...

It's Sunshine Week and this year it kicks off in New Jersey with oral arguments before our Supreme Court in an important Open Public Records Act (OPRA) case.

On March 15, 2021, the Supreme Court will hear Bozzi v. City of Jersey City, a case that asks whether a list of names and addresses of dog license holders are accessible under OPRA. The plaintiff seeks the list for commercial purposes--he intends to mail dog owners information about his invisible fences.  The case is listed as the second case of the day, which means arguments will begin sometime after 11:00 a.m. 

CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein ...

On March 2, 2021 at 10:00 A.M., the New Jersey Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case In re Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive Nos. 2020-05 and 2020-06.  The argument will be streamed live on the Judiciary's website, which you can view live on March 2nd.

We previously wrote about this case while it was pending in the Appellate Division:

In mid-June 2020, the Attorney General of New Jersey issued two important police transparency directives, both of which have been challenged and were before the Appellate Division this week.

The first directive, Law Enforcement ...

Today the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear the plaintiff's appeal in Libertarians for Transparent Gov't v. Cumberland County, 465 N.J. Super. 11 (App. Div. 2020), a published decision that shut down public access to non-litigation settlement agreements that resolve a public employee's internal discipline.

CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. filed the successful petition for certification. We will blog soon with more details about the case and the issues before the Supreme Court. In the meantime, readers can view John Paff's blog for more details about the matter ...

As our readers may recall, Governor Murphy recently signed "Daniel's Law" into law, which exempts the home addresses of current and former judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers from access under OPRA. A bill pending in the New Jersey Legislature would expand those exemptions to include two additional categories of persons.

Among other things, Senate Bill 3209 exempts from OPRA "that portion of any document which discloses the home address, whether a primary or secondary residence, of any active, formerly active, or retired probation officer or member of the ...

Happy New Year! The year 2020 was a year unlike any other. As we look back at transparency issues that arose over the past year, we hope that this blog finds our readers healthy and well.

Pandemic Creates Transparency Hurdles

Transparency was front and center in New Jersey in 2020, although sometimes it was the lack of transparency that was the focus.

On March 9, 2020, Governor Murphy issued Executive Order No. 103 to declare a Public Health Emergency in New Jersey. Days later, the Legislature rushed to amend the Open Public Meetings Act (OPRA) so that public agencies would not have to comply ...

On December 21, 2020, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced changes to the statewide “Use of Force Policy,” the first revision to the policy in two decades. Among other things, the new policy prohibits the use of deadly force against citizens “except as an absolute last resort.” Because the Attorney General is New Jersey’s “chief law enforcement officer,” this policy is binding upon every law enforcement agency in the state.

The new policy has been widely applauded by both the law enforcement community and the civil rights community. In terms of ...

On Nov. 20, 2020, Governor Murphy signed A-1649 into law. Among other things, the bill amends OPRA to render certain home addresses exempt from public access.

Specifically, the new law immediately exempts from access "that portion of any document which discloses the home address, whether a primary or secondary residence, of any active, formerly active, or retired judicial officer or prosecutor."  A "judicial officer" is defined as an "active, formerly active, or retired federal, state, county, or municipal judge, including a judge of the Tax Court and any other court of limited ...

Update as of 10/23/2020:  As mentioned below, we filed OPRA requests on September 26, 2020 for videos that had not been released.  On October 6, 2020, the State said it did not have body cam or dash cam footage of the shooting of Luan Agolli. On October 7, 2020, the State identified the man who died in Totowa on June 27th as Sergio Rodgiguez. As of today, it has not released any videos and said such videos might be produced by October 28, 2020 (which will be 123 days from the incident).

______________________________

In New Jersey, the Attorney General’s Office is required to ...

In mid-June 2020, the Attorney General of New Jersey issued two important police transparency directives, both of which have been challenged and were before the Appellate Division this week.

The first directive, Law Enforcement Directive 2020-5, requires future disclosure of the names of officers who have been subject to “major discipline,” which is described as a sanction of termination, demotion, or five or more days of suspension. 

The second directive, Law Enforcement Directive 2020-6, orders the State Police and other state law enforcement agencies to make a ...

On July 15, 2020, the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee held its first public hearing on police reform in New Jersey. The hearing was intended to be a discussion on policing issues in general and no particular legislative bill was before the committee, but police transparency was a frequent topic.

The hearing opened with live testimony from Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who acknowledged that even after his recent decision to disclose the names of officers who receive major discipline, New Jersey still lags behind the rest of the nation when it comes to providing transparency ...

We recently blogged about Rivera v. Union County Prosecutor's Office, where the trial court granted access to the internal affairs reports of the former Police Director of the City of Elizabeth Police Department, who was the subject of an internal affairs investigation that concluded that he used "racist and misogynistic slurs" in the workplace. As an update, the Appellate Division reversed that decision and concluded that the records were not subject to OPRA on June 19, 2020.

Unfortunately, the Appellate Division did not simply deny access under OPRA. It also concluded that the ...

In 2017, CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden filed an OPRA lawsuit against the New Jersey State Police on behalf of Libertarians for Transparent Government, seeking the identity of a state trooper who had been "required to separate from employment" for "engaging in racially offensive behavior." The trial court dismissed the lawsuit and the Appellate Division affirmed that dismissal, but the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. The appeal is pending.

Today, the State released the name of the trooper.

Additionally, the Attorney General revised the Attorney General ...

Readers may recall from numerous news articles that in April 2019, the Union County Prosecutor's Office (UCPO) concluded that former City of Elizabeth Police Director James Cosgrove used "racist and misogynistic" language in the workplace. The Attorney General issued a press release confirming the internal affairs investigation's findings, calling on Cosgrove to resign, and making leadership changes at UCPO.

After UCPO denied an OPRA request for Cosgrove's internal affairs reports, CJ Griffin filed a lawsuit on behalf of Plaintiff Richard Rivera seeking access to the reports ...

Transparency plays a critical role in  building trust between the police and the community. When members of the public trust the police, they are more likely to follow their commands, cooperate with criminal investigations, and even advocate for more funding for police. When police resist transparency, community trust is seriously undermined. Secrecy also makes it harder to hold police departments accountable and assure that they are complying with the law and meeting the high standards that we set for them. This is why we have been involved in dozens of cases involving police ...

As we have recently written, agencies currently do not have to comply with OPRA's 7-day deadline due to COVID-19.  There is no such deadline relaxation for requestors to file OPRA lawsuits, however. Although there were prior orders by the Supreme Court that tolled such deadlines in March and April, those orders have now expired. Therefore, a person who receives a denial from a public agency must act very quickly. An OPRA suit must be filed within 45 calendar days from the date of the denial.

What should you do if an agency denies your request or otherwise violates OPRA?

As we previously wrote on this blog, the Legislature amended OPRA in mid-March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now and in the future, during a public health emergency, state of emergency, or state of local disaster emergency, a public agency no longer needs to respond to an OPRA request within seven business days.  Instead, an agency must only make "a reasonable effort, as the circumstances permit, to respond to a request for access to a government record within seven business days or as soon as possible thereafter." N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i)(2).

Journalists Expose Transparency ...

OPRA’s personnel records exemption, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10, renders most personnel records generally exempt from access under OPRA. The exemption contains three exceptions, however.

Exception 1

The first exception provides that:

“an individual’s name, title, position, salary, payroll record, length of service, date of separation and the reason therefor, and the amount and type of any pension received shall be a government record.”

This provision obviously means that requests for an employee’s individual paystub or an agency’s weekly, monthly, or year-end payroll ...

Update: Governor Murphy signed this bill into law on March 20, 2020. Many public agencies are already conducting electronic meetings.

The New Jersey Legislature is currently considering numerous bills in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. One bill is A3850, which passed in the Assembly on March 16, 2020, and will likely also pass in the Senate very soon. A3850 amends a public body’s obligations under the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) during a state of emergency. Because this is Sunshine Week and transparency is very important during a crisis, we decided to devote a blog to ...

Sunshine Week, which runs from March 15 to March 21, 2020, is an annual nationwide celebration of access to public information. There are many ways that you can get involved--from filing OPRA requests, to writing a letter to the editor, to attending a public meeting. On this blog, we will write several times this week about transparency topics and success we have had recently shedding light on New Jersey government!

To contact us about this blog post or discuss an OPRA denial, email cgriffin@pashmanstein.com or visit the "contact us" tab above.

Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. partner CJ Griffin received a successful result in a decision from the New Jersey Appellate Division in Digital First Media d/b/a The Trentonian v. Ewing Township, Griffin argued the matter on May 22, 2019 and on November 21, 2019. The decision was issued on February 19, 2020.

In March 2018, Griffin filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) lawsuit on behalf of the Trentonian newspaper, seeking to compel the production of Use of Force Reports (UFRs) relating to the alleged use of force by Ewing police officers against a sixteen-year-old suspect. Ewing ...

A summary of CJ Griffin and Pashman Stein Walder Hayden's 2019 OPRA successes

Each month, we receive dozens of inquiries from people who are upset that their OPRA requests were denied. The most frequent basis for denial is that the request is invalid as written. Although there are records custodians who will happily work with the requestor to fulfill a less-than-perfect request, other custodians will quickly deny any request that does not strictly comply with OPRA’s requirements.  A valid OPRA request is thus the critical first step to obtaining public records and it is important to draft a request that follows some basic guidelines.

Guideline 1:  Do not ask ...

The New Jersey Supreme Court has granted an OPRA requestor's Petition for Certification and agreed to hear an appeal in Libertarians for Transparent Government v. New Jersey State Police.

The question the Court certified is:

"Does section ten of the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10, require disclosure of the name of a state trooper listed in the Office of Professional Standard’s annual report to the Legislature as having been terminated for misconduct?"

For background, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10 states that personnel records are generally exempt under OPRA, but provides ...

The New York Times published an great article yesterday, titled "How The Times Uses FOIA to Obtain Information The Public Has A Right To Know." The article explains why the Times firmly believes that challenging an agency's response to a public records request is important to transparency.

Key quote:

Although smaller newspapers usually do not have in-house counsel to litigate public records lawsuits, in New Jersey OPRA provides a fee-shifting mechanism to make it possible for to find competent counsel who will litigate denials on a contingency basis. Newspapers, journalists, and ...

According to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-6, a records requestor who prevails in any proceeding shall be entitled to an award of reasonable attorneys' fees. We have written about OPRA's fee-shifting provision before, noting that without the fee-shift most requestors would not have the funds to challenge denials of access. As a result, the state would be far less transparent.

On August 14, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an important published opinion relating to OPRA's mandatory fee-shifting provision.

The case, titled Golden v. New Jersey Institute for ...

When Pashman Stein Walder Hayden partners CJ Griffin and Samuel J. Samaro received the unanimous decision in North Jersey Media Group Inc. v. Twp. of Lyndhurst, 229 N.J. 541 (2017), from the New Jersey Supreme Court on July 11, 2017, it was clear that this hard-fought matter was a landmark case that would have significant impact on transparency about the use of force by police in the state of New Jersey. The Court had granted access via the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and common law to police records and dash cam footage of a high-speed police chase and the fatal use of force on a ...

Last week, Bergen County Assignment Judge Bonnie J. Mizdol issued an opinion finding that the Borough of North Arlington unlawfully imposed a special service charge upon a records requestor who sought records from the Borough's Facebook pages.

The OPRA request at issue in Wronko v. North Arlington sought the list of individuals who had been banned from the Borough's Facebook page, as well as a list of any words that had been censored and the list of page administrators. In response, the Borough insisted it needed to use an outside IT consultant to capture the screenshots necessary to ...

Last week, CJ Griffin filed an OPRA lawsuit on behalf of Richard Rivera against the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office (ECPO) relating to its refusal to disclose the name of a Newark police officer who shot at a fleeing vehicle during a pursuit in January 2019, killing the driver and injuring the passenger. The lawsuit also seeks access to footage from police body-worn cameras and dash cameras.

ECPO denied the request because it is “concerned” that the officer may refuse to testify before the grand jury if his or her name is publicly disclosed. Mr. Rivera’s lawsuit argues that this ...

Pashman Stein Walder Hayden partner CJ Griffin has published an article in the April 2019 issue of New Jersey Lawyer magazine, titled "The Legal Implications of Governmental Social Media Use." A full copy of the article can be viewed here:

A new bill pending in the Senate, S-2267, directs the State Lottery Commission to amend its regulations so that the identities of lottery winners are not accessible under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The bill offers the winners of the lottery lifetime anonymity.

In 2013, former Governor Christie vetoed a similar bill that
would have allowed lottery winners to remain anonymous for one year because he
claimed it “could
undermine the transparency that provides taxpayers confidence in the integrity
of the Lottery and its games.” Similar bills have recently failed in other

This week is Sunshine Week, a week dedicated to promoting openness in government! In honor of Sunshine Week, we're sharing the following resources which will help you shine a light on the government.

OPRA Presentation:

CJ Griffin will give an OPRA training in Nutley (Essex County) on March 12. Come meet CJ and learn about how you can use the Open Public Records Act to hold your government accountable.

New Jersey Resources:

New Jersey Transparency Center/YourMoney.NJ.Gov: This website is operated by the State of New Jersey and provides volume of data about State agencies and ...

Today, The Record published a story about the Borough of Wallington's decision to suspend its Borough Clerk and file tenure charges against him with the state Department of Community Affairs. According to The Record, the Clerk is charged with "serious deficiencies," including failing to comply with OPRA's statutory time frames "43 times in 2018 and 36 times in 2017."

PSWH Partner CJ Griffin is quoted in the article and discusses the potential liability both a public agency and its records custodian (or other employees) could face for violating OPRA.

Most OPRA cases involve an ...

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at 7 p.m., PSWH Partner CJ Griffin will celebrate Sunshine Week by giving a free OPRA presentation at the Nutley Public Library. Come learn the nuts and bolts of filing an OPRA request so that you can make sure your town is transparent!

The Trentonian published an editorial on January 15, 2019, calling for Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora's administration to be more transparent. The editorial discusses a lawsuit filed on the newspaper's behalf by CJ Griffin, a Partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden and Editor of the NJ OPRA Blog. Griffin, who is quoted in the editorial, sued for the newspaper to obtain access to a body camera recording which would confirm whether the Mayor's Chief of Staff had falsely accused one of the Trentonian's reporters of stealing documents from his office. To read the editorial, learn about the ...

In September 2018, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of long-time client Steven Wronko seeking the list of users that Carteret Mayor Daniel J. Reiman has banned from his Facebook page.

Carteret opposed the lawsuit, arguing that Mayor Reiman's Facebook page was simply a personal page and that he has constitutional right to ban members of the public and a privacy interest in keeping the ban list secret.

We responded and provided over 200 pages of screenshots from the Mayor's Facebook page which showed that Mayor Reiman used his Facebook page to declare weather emergencies and keep the public ...

Many people want to know how they can monitor an agency's spending and determine how much an agency is paying a certain vendor (such as a law firm, plumber, construction company, or insurance company) or even who the agency's vendors are. A "Vendor Activity Report" (or "Vendor History Report") is a very helpful tool for learning this information.

A Vendor Activity/History Report details all payments made to every individual or company that was entered into the agency's accounting software in order to receive a payment. If a bill is paid, then there is a corresponding "vendor" entry in ...

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

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 ...

CJ Griffin, a member of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden's Media Law Group, was interviewed by Marketplace regarding a prior OPRA lawsuit she brought against the City of Newark seeking its Amazon HQ2 bid.

The public radio program, “What's in Those Amazon HQ2 Bids? It's Not Entirely Clear” by Renata Sago and Leila Goldstein, aired on Tuesday, November 6^th.

“There’s hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, of tax dollars, at stake," said CJ Griffin, a partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, who argued the case. "That’s taxpayer money. When you give tax breaks, that impacts ...

Perhaps the most important thing to remember about OPRA is that there is a very, very short statute of limitations period. This means that if you receive a denial, you need to act very quickly or you may lose your rights to gain access to the record you seek.

NJ Advance Media has written about the recent lawsuit we filed on behalf of Libertarians for Transparent Government seeking a settlement/separation agreement between Cumberland County and a corrections officer who allegedly had inappropriate relationships with inmates. The lawsuit also asks the Court to find that Cumberland County violated OPRA when it told Plaintiff that the corrections officer was "terminated for disciplinary reasons," when the Pension Board's meeting minutes state that he was allowed to "retire in good standing."

PSWH partner CJ Griffin is quoted in the ...

Every year, transparency warrior Senator Loretta Weinberg introduces a bill which would modernize and improve OPRA. This year’s bill is S107. Given that Democrats now control the Senate, Assembly, and Governor’s Office, we are hopeful that the bill has a chance of passing.

While the bill overwhelmingly improves OPRA, through a series of blogs we will highlight how some small provisions of the bill that seem non-controversial can actually cause some major problems for requestors.

First topic? Copying costs.

Currently, agencies cannot charge a copying charge to send ...

This week, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a split decision (4-3) in Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and once again ruled that dash camera videos that pertain to criminal investigations are not subject to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

While the decision is a serious disappointment to transparency advocates, it does not actually change the status quo. Last year, in North Jersey Media Group Inc. v. Township of Lyndhurst, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that the dash cam video of a police-involved deadly shooting was not subject to OPRA because there was no Attorney ...

PSWH Partner CJ Griffin will present a seminar in Camden County titled "OPRA 101: How to Use the Open Public Records Act to Hold Your Government Accountable."  The event is being hosted by LoveLindenwold.org

Date and Location:

Thursday, September 6, 2018
6pm
M. Allan Vogelson Regional Branch, Camden County Library System,
203 Laurel Rd
Voorhees Township, NJ 08043

Event Description:

The New Jersey Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) is a powerful tool for people who want to ensure that their government is transparent and accountable. This seminar will provide you with the nuts and ...

The New York Times has published an article about the serious lack of transparency regarding the proposals that cities have submitted bids to Amazon for their HQ2 Headquarters. Despite the fact that the taxpayers of the winning city will be on the hook for billions of dollars in incentives, too many cities are still keeping the public in the dark about what Amazon is being offered.

The article references our lawsuit, which secured access to the City of Newark's bid, which we published.

Our client, Reclaim the Records, just published a newsletter explaining how PSWH partner CJ Griffin helped the organization gain access to New Jersey's Death Index.

Reclaim The Records is a not-for-profit activist group of genealogists, historians, researchers, and journalists. It works to identify important genealogical record sets that are not online anywhere and not broadly available to the public. Through public records laws, it works to obtain copies of the records and then digitizes them and puts them online for free use.

What did Reclaim the Records do with the Death ...

We previously wrote about an OPRA lawsuit we filed on behalf of citizen seeking a list of users that various public officials from Glen Rock have blocked from their official Facebook accounts. Today we are happy to report that the suit was successful.

In Larkin v. Glen Rock, the Honorable Bonnie J. Mizdol, A.J.S.C., ruled that the lists of blocked users from each of the Facebook pages in questions were "government records" that are subject to access under OPRA. In her 23-page opinion, the judge noted that there is no "one-size-fit-all" approach to determine whether a particular Facebook ...

On June 4, 2018, the Appellate Division issued an unpublished OPRA opinion titled Benedetto v Russo and Union County. While the opinion is not binding on lower courts because it is unpublished, we think it is helpful in several ways.

First, the case involves very important records: incident reports regarding suicide and suspicious deaths within a County Correctional Facility. Given the widespread coverage regarding several deaths in the Hudson County Jail recently, it is important that the public has access to information about these deaths and the conditions inside the jail.

In ...

CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. Submitted Amicus Curiae
Brief on Behalf of Non-profit Organization
in Brennan v. Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

Hackensack, NJ (May 23, 2018) – The Supreme Court of New Jersey has issued its opinion in Brennan v. Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, in which Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. partner CJ Griffin submitted an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Libertarians for Transparent Government, a non-profit organization. The Court’s decision today provides important guidance to lower courts on how to apply the Open ...

Ruling protects the right of out-of-state media to utilize OPRA

Pashman Stein Walder Hayden partner CJ Griffin secured an important victory today in a consolidated Open Public Records Act (OPRA) case. The Appellate Division ruled that OPRA can be used by “any person” and is not limited only to New Jersey citizens. No other appellate court has previously addressed this issue. The Appellate Division’s decision can be viewed here.

The case, which has been approved for publication, is captioned Harry Scheeler v. Atlantic County Municipal Joint Insurance Fund. The Appellate ...

Government agencies often distribute surveys to the public regarding various issues of public concern. Are the completed surveys subject to public access under OPRA? We think so and a court is being asked to decide.

Recently, we learned of an OPRA lawsuit filed by a requestor who seeks the results of a survey that was sent to residents of the Borough of Saddle River. The survey, which was sent by a local veterinarian who serves on the Borough's Non-Lethal Deer Population Control Committee, asked residents whether they would allow access to their property to carry out a non-lethal deer ...

We previously blogged about an OPRA lawsuit we filed on behalf of an activist seeking access to Newark's Amazon HQ2 proposal. We are happy to announce that Newark has now released its proposal to our client.

Newark's proposal is titled, "Yes, Newark." As evidenced by the privilege log it attached to the proposal, Newark redacted approximately 6 pages from its 200+ page proposal. These pages contained the financial incentives that Newark is offering to Amazon. All other information has been disclosed. We consider this a significant transparency victory.

"I strongly believe in open ...

It's a hot button topic: are government officials creating government records that are subject to OPRA when they utilize social media? A judge will soon decide.

CJ Griffin was recently interviewed by Fios 1 News television regarding a lawsuit she filed on behalf of a requestor seeking a list of users that various government officials have blocked from their official Facebook accounts.

The Record also covered the lawsuit.

We think the answer is obvious: if a government official conducts official government business on a social media account (such as updating constituents on official ...

We have always recommended that clients challenge their OPRA denials in Superior Court. Why? Primarily because the process is significantly faster.  An action filed in Superior Court will generally be resolved within 2-4 months in most cases, unless there is an appeal. This expedited process is vital to transparency, especially for reporters who need the records to report news to the public in a timely fashion.

In contrast, we have filed 4 denial of access complaints in the GRC and the process was unbearably long.  One case took 25 months, another 22 months,  and a third took 13 months. The ...

On February 20, 2018, Pashman Stein Walder Hayden partner CJ Griffin filed an OPRA lawsuit against the City of Newark on behalf of long-time client Steven Wronko.  The lawsuit seeks access to a copy of Newark's AmazonHQ2 proposal.

For our prior press release about the suit and a copy of the complaint, click here.

On March 26, 2018, Newark moved to dismiss Plaintiff's complaint. In support of its motion, Newark submitted a certification by Aisha Glover, Executive Director of the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation ("NCEDC"), which simply stated that a) Newark is bound by a ...

Today, PSWH secured an appellate victory for two long-term firm clients, Richard Rivera and Collene Wronko.

The case involved OPRA requests for records from the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office (MCPO) which related to an incident where police officers shot and killed a man outside his home in Old Bridge. Both Mr. Rivera and Ms. Wronko sought access to the 9-1-1 call of the incident, as well as other police records, such as CAD reports and Standard Operating Procedures. Their requests were denied.

After lawsuits were filed, MCPO eventually released a redacted version of the 9-1-1 ...

Today, Pashman Stein Walder Hayden secured a victory for our client, Jennifer Coombs, in an OPRA case against the Borough of Westwood.

Ms. Coombs had requested payroll records from Westwood for all employees working for the Borough in 2017.  Westwood responded to Ms. Coombs' request by providing a payroll report, but redacting the names of numerous employees from it. Westwood stated that the redacted names were of minor employees who worked in the summer recreation program and that they were entitled to privacy.  After Ms. Coombs objected, Westwood released a new version of the report ...

Last week, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal issued Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive No. 2018-1, which provides instructions to law enforcement agencies in this State regarding public access to dash camera and body camera footage of police-involved shootings.  We find that there are both pros and cons to this new directive.

Pros:
On one hand, we are very happy to see that the new Attorney General clearly understands that transparency advances public trust in law enforcement. The overall spirit of this directive is positive and it recognizes that law enforcement do not need ...

Last week, the Appellate Division issued a published decision that is very important to transparency.  While the court's analysis of its standard of review over GRC decisions will excite appellate attorneys, it is the more substantive portion of the court's decision that grabbed our attention.

The case is Conley v. N.J. Dep’t of Corrections, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. Jan. 12, 2018), and it involves an OPRA request that was filed by Kevin Conley, an inmate at the New Jersey State Prison.

Mr. Conley's OPRA request sought “monthly remedy statistical reports” that were required ...

PSWH Partner CJ Griffin will be giving an OPRA training on Tuesday, January 23, 2017 at 6:30pm at the River Edge Public Library, 685 Elm ave, River Edge, NJ.

This event is free and open to the public.  Come learn about the nuts and bolts of filing an OPRA request!

This event is sponsored by Indivisible NJ 5th District, Glen Rock People Power, Ridgewood JOLT, Glen Rock after the March, Women for Progress, and Ramsey Pins!

On December 12, 2017, CJ Griffin will speak at the Clifton ASAP (Advocating Solutions and Progress) Group in Clifton, NJ.

Griffin will give a presentation on the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and answer questions from the public. The event is free and all are welcome to attend.

When: December 12, 2017 at 7pm
Where:  Allwood Public Library, 44 Lyall Road, Clifton, NJ
Who: Clifton ASAP Group

All may attend. Cost is free.

In this third part of our series about using OPRA to monitor police agencies, we will discuss how to ensure that individual officers meet the qualifications for their duty assignments and are properly trained.

Generally, personnel records are exempt from access under OPRA. However, we previously blogged about the personnel records exemption and explained that there are three exceptions. The third exception provides that the following records are accessible:

data contained in information which disclose conformity with specific experiential, educational or medical ...

We recently blogged about how you can use OPRA to gain access to records that relate to the use of force by police officers against members of the public. This blog discusses other types of police records that will help you monitor your local police department.

Internal Affairs Annual Summary Reports:

The Attorney General’s Internal Affairs Policy requires every law enforcement agency to an release annual internal affairs summary report to the public which “summarizes the types of [internal affairs] complaints received and the dispositions of those complaints.” This ...

Police officers have the ability to arrest and detain suspects, to seize property, and to lawfully use force against people when justified by law.  Because police officers are given these tremendous powers, we should hold them to very high standards— we expect that they will be honest, trustworthy, and follow the law and the Constitution.

In a three-part series, we will discuss how you can use OPRA to monitor police conduct. This blog highlights records you can request to monitor the use of force by police officers.

Use of Force Reports:

Pursuant to the Attorney General’s Use of Force ...

It is widely accepted that student records are exempt from public access under OPRA, either under the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) or New Jersey’s Pupil Records Act (“NJPRA”). In other words, everyone accepts that students are entitled to privacy and that the public is not able to access grade cards, discipline records, and other sensitive information. However, when it comes to records that relate to an individual student but involve a significant expenditure of public funds, such as settlement agreements, most courts have permitted access to them ...

Recently, Pashman Stein Walder Hayden has filed several amicus curiae briefs in pending Supreme Court appeals dealing with transparency issues:

Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office:  This case will provide further guidance on whether dash cam videos are available under OPRA. While the Court recently ruled that dash cam recordings of a police-involved shooting were not subject to OPRA in North Jersey Media Group Inc. v. Twp. of Lyndhurst, this appeal considers arguments that were not made in that case.  We filed an amicus brief in support of transparency on behalf of Latino ...

We have previously written about our nearly three-year battle to secure access to police records relating to the police-involved shooting of Kashad Ashford in 2014.  We are happy to announce that the Supreme Court of New Jersey has issued a landmark ruling in this case and has restored transparency over the use of force by police officers.  Our press release is available here.

In a decision written by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, the Court unanimously ruled that use of force reports, the names of officers involved in the shooting, and dash camera footage of the incident should be released.  ...

Pashman Stein Walder Hayden recently secured a victory in Matt Mills v. Township of Monroe, a case that challenged the sufficiency of a public agency’s search for emails responsive to an OPRA request.

In this case, Mr. Mills requested emails sent to or from various township employees and officials relating to the township’s EMS services. After the township responded to the request and produced emails, Mr. Mills noticed that not everything was produced. After he followed up, the township produced more emails, but Mr. Mills was still aware of other emails that were not produced ...

Last year, in Paff v. Township of Galloway, 444 N.J. Super. 495 (App. Div. 2016), the Appellate Division issued a rather shocking decision —in essence, the court held that even though OPRA includes electronically stored information is in the definition of “government records,” an agency has no obligation to extract that data because it would be “creating a new record.”

Mr. Paff’s request involved a log of emails that included the “to,” “from,” “subject,” and “date.” The agency admitted that it could print the log and it would take only two to three ...

The Borough of Flemington has made the news recently when it voted to impose an automatic special service charge on all OPRA requests that the Custodian estimates will take over two hours to fulfill.  When the Custodian receives such a request, she will provide an estimate to the requestor who will then have to pay one-third of the costs in advance.

We previously discussed the imposition of special service charges on this blog.  While OPRA does permit a special service charge where a request requires an “extraordinary expenditure of time and effort to accommodate,” as ...

OPRA permits agencies to withhold most criminal investigatory records, but requires them to disclose certain enumerated information to the public:

if an arrest has been made, information as to the name, address and age of any victims unless there has not been sufficient opportunity for notification of next of kin of any victims of injury and/or death to any such victim or where the release of the names of any victim would be contrary to existing law or court rule. In deciding on the release of information as to the identity of a victim, the safety of the victim and the victim's family, and the ...

One question we frequently receive is whether an agency can charge a requestor an hourly rate to respond to an OPRA request.   The answer is yes, but only in specific circumstances where a requestor seeks an extraordinarily large volume of records.

N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(c) provides that:

Whenever the nature, format, manner of collation, or volume of a government record embodied in the form of printed matter to be inspected, examined, or copied pursuant to this section is such that the record cannot be reproduced by ordinary document copying equipment in ordinary business size or involves an ...

For years, individuals have filed OPRA requests with agencies to obtain all of the OPRA requests an agency has received during a specific timeframe.  Requestors use these records in a variety of ways, such as a) finding out how many OPRA requests an agency is handling during any specific timeframe (since agencies have no obligation to calculate that information and let the public know); b) being able to contact another member of the public who is interested in the same type of government issues; c) learning more about government by seeing what other requestors are seeking from their ...

The third exception to OPRA’s personnel records exemption provides that:

data contained in information which disclose conformity with specific experiential, educational or medical qualifications required for government employment or for receipt of a public pension, but not including any detailed medical or psychological information, shall be a government record.

[N.J.S.A. 47:1A-10.]

In Kovalcik v. Somerset Cty. Prosecutor's Office, 206 N.J. 581, 593 (2011), the Supreme Court has made it clear that this exception does not authorize disclosure of all records that ...

This week, Assembly Bill A4532 passed out of the State and Local Government Committee and will likely be voted on by the Assembly at some point in the near future.  This bill will severely hinder transparency in this State in two ways.

First, A4532 creates a new exemption for “personal government records,” which are defined as records “that consists of or pertains solely to a pet or home alarm system permit, license, or registration.”  While I understand that the sponsor of the bill is concerned that businesses utilize these lists as marketing tools, these lists can be very ...

Last week we discussed Exception 1 to OPRA’s personnel records exemption, which permits you to file an OPRA request for a public employee’s “name, title, position, salary, payroll record, length of service, date of separation and the reason therefor, and the amount and type of any pension received shall be a government record.”  This week, we explore Exception 2.

Exception 2 provides that: “personnel or pension records of any individual shall be accessible when required to be disclosed by another law, when disclosure is essential to the performance of official duties of a ...

Personnel records are a category of government records that shine significant light on the workings of government (including misconduct and corruption), but unfortunately our Legislature made most personnel records off limits when it enacted OPRA.  So, what records can you get?

Section 10 of OPRA makes personnel and pension records generally off limits, but it provides three exceptions.  Today, we will discuss the first exception.

The first exception provides that:  “an individual's name, title, position, salary, payroll record, length of service, date of separation and the ...

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled in a split decision that security camera footage is not accessible under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

About the Case

The case is Patricia Gilleran v. Township of Bloomfield.  Ms. Gilleran* requested video footage from a security camera placed on the outside of town hall, just above the mayor’s parking spot.  Bloomfield denied her request, citing two of OPRA’s security-related provisions that exempt:

emergency or security information or procedures for any buildings or facility which, if disclosed, would jeopardize ...

Attorney CJ Griffin is representing The Trentonian in an lawsuit which seeks access to 9-1-1 calls under the Open Public Records Act.  The Trentonian will ask the Honorable Mary C. Jacobson, A.J.S.C., to compel the Township of Hamilton to release 9-1-1 calls relating to an alleged domestic dispute that occurred at the home of a Trenton police officer.  Hamilton claims that the Domestic Violence Prevention Act bars access to the 9-1-1 calls.  The Trentonian argues, however, that the DVPA (NJSA 2C:25-33) only exempts certain records and 9-1-1 calls are not on the list. Additionally, the ...

Recently, the Honorable Travis L. Francis, A.J.S.C. ruled that the Township of Old Bridge must release dash camera footage that depicts the Police Director of Carteret engaged in a DWI violation.  Judge Francis ruled that dash camera footage is not a criminal investigatory record and that it did not pertain to a criminal investigation.

Pashman Stein Walder Hayden attorney CJ Griffin represented Mr. Wronko in this matter.

The following article was posted on Northjersey.com on November 9, 2016 edition. It describes an argument before the New Jersey Supreme Court in one of the most consequential Open Public Records Act cases in State history. Our partner Sam Samaro is lead counsel for North Jersey Media Group and our firm spearheaded the appeal.

The Press of Atlantic City published a profile on John Paff, a well-known transparency advocate and a firm client.  Pashman Stein Walder Hayden attorney CJ Griffin is also quoted in the article, as well as one of the firm’s other clients, Harry Scheeler.  This article nicely demonstrates the need for transparency and the critical role that Mr. Paff has played in shaping the scope of OPRA.

Article link

OPRA provides that a public agency must grant access to a record “as soon as possible, but not later than 7 business days after receiving a request.” Public agencies also are required to make other records available “immediately,” which should mean that you can walk into town hall and obtain a copy or at least receive a copy within 24 hours.  Those records include “budgets, bills, vouchers, contracts, including collective negotiations agreements and individual employment contracts, and public employee salary and overtime information.”

Most people who have filed OPRA ...

In enacting OPRA, the Legislature created two exemptions for police records.  The first exemption is the “ongoing investigation exemption.” N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3(a).  For that exemption to apply, an investigation must be ongoing and the police agency must prove that release of the records would be “inimical to the public interest.”   Even if the police do prove that releasing the records while the investigation is ongoing would be harmful, ultimately the records must be released after the investigation concludes.

OPRA’s other exemption, the “criminal investigatory ...

OPRA requires public agencies to respond within 7 business days of your request. (Tip: Begin counting the first business day after you filed the request).  A public agency must respond within 7 business days and either: 1) Produce responsive records; 2) Tell you that access is being denied and reason for the denial; or 3) Ask for an extension of time to respond.

But what do you do if the government fails to respond (a deemed denial) or denies access to a record that you know is not exempt?

The best course of action is to immediately speak to an attorney, who can work with you to gain access to the ...

Several of Pashman Stein’s OPRA cases have been covered extensively by the press lately. Here is a rundown of the coverage.

McClimate v. Cumberland County

The Daily Journal has covered McClimate v. Cumberland County, a case where Pashman Stein has filed a suit on behalf of a retired county employee who seeks records pertaining to her insurance coverage.  Despite repeated requests that the county provide the actual cost sheet that Horizon Blue Cross gave the county, the county instead insisted on providing only a summary chart that it created.  Ms. McClimate seeks the actual cost ...

Section 5 of OPRA is clear that government records must be available “as soon as possible.” It then provides an outer time limit for public agencies—records must be produced as soon as possible, “but not later than seven business days after receiving the request.”  Unfortunately, fewer and fewer public agencies comply with these rigid timelines.  Most agencies produce records on the 7^th business day, even though they are supposed to be available “as soon as possible.”  And many agencies have moved to automatically taking an extension of time for each and every OPRA ...

Sam Samaro, partner at Pashman Stein, is quoted on the Bridgegate-related article that appeared on January 25, 2016.

Published in The Lacey Reporter.com

A local activist is suing the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office over what his attorney is calling a “cover up” of documents related to the unlawful arrest of Lacey Reporter contributor Andrew Flinchbaugh. Transparency activist Harry Scheeler, who previously founded a local news website covering Galloway Township is behind the suit.

For the rest of the article, click here.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has granted the Township of Bloomfield’s Motion for Leave to appeal in Gilleran v. Twp. of Bloomfield, 440 N.J. Super. 490 (App. Div. 2015, making the Appellate Division’s decision subject to the Court’s review.

In this case, Ms. Gilleran initially filed an OPRA request for a week’s worth of video footage from a security camera at the rear of the Municipal Building. She sought the footage to confirm whether certain politically connected individuals were visiting the municipal complex, as was rumored.  The camera is in plain sight and sits above the ...

The following article was authored by Pashman Stein Partner Sam Samaro and appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal on October 29, 2015.

In March of 1991, a Los Angeles resident by the name of George Holliday noticed some commotion outside his apartment. He grabbed a camcorder, went out onto his balcony and shot the now iconic footage of Rodney King being beaten by the police. The resulting prosecution of the officers involved occurred because, and only because, the incident happened to take place within eyeshot of a citizen with a video camera. At the time, videotaped evidence of police ...

While overwhelmingly most agencies accept emailed or faxed requests or have an online portal to submit OPRA requests, there are a handful of agencies that do not. The Government Records Council (GRC) recently ruled that the refusal to accept at least one form of electronically submitted requests violates OPRA.

On September 29, 2015, the GRC ruled in Russo v. City of East Orange (Essex), GRC Complaint No. 2014-430, that “the City’s policy of banning submission of OPRA requests electronically represents an unreasonable obstacle on access.” In its decision, the GRC recounted ...

CJ Griffin quoted in The Trentonian News article: Advocate sues AG’s office over lack of information in Radazz Hearns shooting

http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20151020/advocate-sues-ags-office-over-lack-of-information-in-radazz-hearns-shooting

Numerous media entities have joined in an amicus brief filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, New Jersey Press Association, and ACLU of New Jersey in support of North Jersey Media Group’s Motion for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court in the case North Jersey Media Group v. Twp. of Lyndhurst, 441 N.J. Super. 70, 112-13 (App. Div. 2015).  Pashman Stein represents Plaintiff in this case, which has drawn national attention due to the Appellate Division’s holding which significantly limited the public’s right of access to police records.    

Pursuant to Section 5 of OPRA, a public agency must state the “specific basis” for denying access to government records.  Those who request records frequently, however, know that it is not uncommon for a public agency to issue a blanket denial when you’ve requested a volume of records, rather than telling you specifically why each requested record is being withheld.  Yesterday, a court awarded attorneys fees to Pashman Stein in litigation against a public agency who had refused to tell Plaintiff John Paff whether there were records responsive to his request and instead kept ...

As we previously blogged in our prior blog, Pashman Stein successfully defended a lawsuit against an OPRA requestor who had been sued by a government agency, Hamilton Township.  Yesterday, the Press of Atlantic City published an editorial criticizing Hamilton’s actions.  You can read the editorial here:  http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/editorials/public-records-people-want-more-openness-so-make-it-happen/article_101f85d1-d59c-5184-8dcd-b4a5a737d2b6.html

Our firm is proud of the results it has achieved for clients, some of which are noted ...

OPRA expressly provides that the right to institute any proceeding belongs “solely” to a records requestor.  Despite this, there has been a recent trend in public agencies dragging OPRA requestors into court—often over requests that the requestor would have not have chosen to litigate.

One such case is Township of Hamilton v. Harry Scheeler, in which CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein represented Mr. Scheeler.  Upon belief that the Township was not complying with the records retention schedule for video surveillance tapes, Mr. Scheeler filed an OPRA request for 30 days of video ...

Update: We have written extensively about this topic since this blog was published in 2015  and have filed successful suits for Facebook records. For updated content, click here, here, and here.

As the number of public agencies with a social media presence grows, questions arise regarding whether the content of the social media sites is a “government record” subject to OPRA.  We believe that it is.

OPRA defines government records very broadly and includes “information stored or maintained electronically.”  This should cover posts made on a public agency’s official ...

We have blogged before about a public agency’s requirement under the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) to make its meeting minutes “promptly” available to the public.  Our courts have held that minutes must be made available within two weeks after a public meeting or, at a minimum, at least 48-hours prior to the next meeting.  Those who regularly file requests for meeting minutes, however, are well aware that overwhelmingly public agencies fail to meet this timeline.  Indeed, many, if not most, public agencies are months behind on releasing minutes to the public.

One such agency is ...

Partner Sam Samaro is representing North Jersey Media Group in an OPRA request to the NJ State Police for the release of documentation related to a fatal shooting.  See link for the full article:

We close Sunshine Week by featuring Jennifer A. Borg, Esq.

Ms. Borg is General Counsel and Vice President of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.  She is a recognized authority in First Amendment and open governance matters, particularly as they affect newspapers, and has recently served as Chair of the New Jersey Press Association.  She also has litigated numerous OPRA lawsuits with successful results.  Ms. Borg was featured in the ABA Journal (July 2014) for her expertise in OPRA and public records access issues.  Pashman Stein regularly serves as co-counsel with North ...

Today’s Sunshine Week profile features Rich Rivera, a police practices expert who uses OPRA to monitor police misconduct and the use of force by police officers on citizens.  Mr. Rivera is the Chairman of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey’s Civil Rights Protection Project, which addresses the community’s needs relating to police services and police interactions. He is a former Board Member of the ACLU of New Jersey, where he co-authored the report “The Crisis Inside Police Internal Affairs.”  Pashman Stein has litigated several cases on Mr. Rivera’s behalf.

Today’s Sunshine Week profile focuses on Pat Gilleran, a client for whom Pashman Stein has litigated many OPRA matters.  Pat is an open government and animal rights activist.  Pat’s litigation has been instrumental in forcing non-profit business improvement districts to comply with OPRA’s provisions.  Presently, Pashman Stein is defending an appeal on Pat’s behalf relating to video footage from a surveillance camera outside the Bloomfield Municipal Building. While the trial court ruled in Pat’s favor and held that the footage was subject to OPRA, Bloomfield has refused ...

Continuing with our Sunshine Week theme, today’s blog focuses on Harry Scheeler.  Recently, CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein secured a victory on Mr. Scheeler’s behalf against the Office of the Governor, which had denied access to RSVP lists for those attending Governor Christie’s Town Halls.

Interview with Harry Scheeler:

1. When and how did you initially become interested in the open government movement?

I first became interested in open government as a teenager. In the early 1990s the police department in my hometown was given cell phones for the purpose of calling judges for ...

It’s Sunshine Week– a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.  This week on the blog we will feature some of Pashman Stein’s clients who are open government activists or journalists and highlight some proposed changes to the New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA) that are currently pending in the Legislature.

Today we feature Collene Wronko, an open government and animal rights activist from Middlesex County.  Ms. Wronko and her husband, Steve, have led a group of dedicated activists who have used OPRA to ...

News broke this week that Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used her personal email account to conduct government business while she was Secretary of State.  Unfortunately, this practice occurs quite frequently at the local levels of government and it has the potential to undermine government transparency, as it allows public officials to conduct public business behind closed doors. New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) is broad enough, however, to require such emails to be produced.

OPRA defines a “government record” as any document (including ...

On February 4, 2015, CJ Griffin of Pashman Stein secured a victory for Harry Scheeler, a prominent open-government activist, in a case against the Office of the Governor which alleged violations of the Open Public Records Act.

In September, Mr. Scheeler requested RSVP lists from Governor Chris Christie’s “town hall” meetings.  The Governor’s Office denied the request, stating that the lists could not be released based on the privacy provisions of OPRA and Executive Order 26.

Mr. Scheeler filed suit in the Superior Court, alleging an OPRA violation.  After litigation, the ...

Recently, Pashman Stein secured a victory in the case North Jersey Media Group v. Township of Lyndhurst, et al.  Below are links to media covering this important decision, in which the Hon. Peter E. Doyne, A.J.S.C., ruled that the Defendant public agencies violated OPRA and compelled the Defendants to produce records relating to the police shooting of a man in Lyndhurst in September 2014.

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2015/01/judge_orders_release_of_records_in_fatal_bergen_co.html

As it appeared on New Jersey Law Journal, January 13, 2015 in regards to Pashman Stein's representation.

Police records related to the shooting of a black man who was killed by officers after he allegedly rammed them with an SUV must be released to the public immediately and without redaction, a New Jersey state trial judge has ruled, citing the heightened need for public access to information in the wake of the killings of African-American males by police in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y.

“The defendants’ refusals to disclose and utter lack of cooperation was undoubtedly ...

Published in New Jersey Corporate Counsel's Newsletter, December 2014 Issue

Those who frequently litigate are aware that the discovery process often involves numerous components, including interrogatories, document demands, subpoenas, depositions, and requests for admissions.  In addition to these traditional tools, New Jersey offers an additional discovery mechanism that is often overlooked:  the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1, et seq.  When a dispute involves a public agency, public property, or public resources, OPRA can be an important ...

Whether a public agency can charge for records provided in response to an OPRA request depends on the circumstances.  There are important guidelines to remember.

• Electronic copies of records should ordinarily be free of charge, so most requestors seek them in that format. When making your request, simply ask that the records be emailed to you.

• If a requestor wants a hard copy of a record, the public agency may charge 5 cents per letterhead size copy and 7 cents per legal paper size copy. A public agency may not charge more unless they can prove that their “actual costs” are higher.

• If the ...

It is common that a requestor will seek a record that is required by law to be made.  Thinking that she is being helpful to the Records Custodian and making her request clearer, the requestor will often cite the particular law when making her request.  Requestors who do this should be careful, as Records Custodians will often deny the request on the basis that it requires them to perform "research."

A good example of this issue occurred in the case Bart v. Passaic County Public Housing Agency, 406 N.J. Super. 445 (App. Div. 2009).  There, the requestor (Bart) sought "signs currently posted in ...

Often, public agencies deny requests for records relating to misconduct or crime and claim that the records are part of an “investigation in progress” and therefore not subject to OPRA.  It is true that OPRA does provide an exemption for ongoing investigations, but it is important to know how this exemption is applied.

First, OPRA specifically states that ongoing investigation does not apply to records that were “open for public inspection, examination, or copying before the investigation commenced.” N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3a.  This means that a video recording that recorded a ...

Most public agencies have adopted official OPRA Request Forms that they place on their websites.  For frequent requestors, filling out the official form each and every time a request is made can be time consuming so many opt to send their requests in the body of an email to the records custodian.  According to New Jersey case law, this is perfectly acceptable.  In Renna v. County of Union, 407 N.J. Super. 230 (App. Div. 2009), the Appellate Division held that no public agency may deny an OPRA request simply because the requestor did not use the agency’s official OPRA Request Form.  However, a ...

Published by Media & Entertainment and New Jersey Law360

Elected officials and government employees are often overly cooperative with media when the subject matter involves an issue near and dear to their hearts, advances their political talking points, or is otherwise beneficial to them. But, when the media is attempting to uncover scandal, government waste or potential wrongdoing, journalists often find that their requests for interviews and information are denied and that the elected official suddenly has “no comment.”

Many people ask whether the emails sent to or from a public employee or public official are subject to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).  The answer is yes – email correspondence is subject to OPRA if government business is discussed or conducted. That is true even if the public employee or official uses a private email account.

The Government Records Council has held that a valid request for emails requires the following:

• Date range. Note that the range must not be overbroad—requests for months or years of emails may very likely be held to be too broad.
• Subject matter. We recommend ...

Some public agencies routinely deny access to invoices for attorney services, claiming that such bills contain information protected by the attorney-client privilege.  OPRA, however, specifically mandates that these bills must be made available in response to an OPRA request.  The public bills may, however, “be redacted to remove any information protected by the attorney-client privilege.”

Recently, a public agency attempted to charge a requestor an hourly rate for its attorney’s time to review the legal bills and redact them for privileged information. The public ...

When a dispute involves a public agency, public property, or public resources, the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) can be an important information gathering tool, whether a lawsuit has already been filed or a party is simply gathering facts necessary to draft the complaint and initiate the litigation. Thus, OPRA is frequently used as a litigation tool by those who do business with public agencies or those who purchase or lease public property, such as construction companies and real estate developers.

Our courts have found that it is perfectly acceptable to use OPRA in lieu of written ...

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When you make a valid OPRA request, a public agency has seven business days to respond. But, if your request is invalid for some reason, the custodian can deny your request.  The clock will then start all over again if you re-write your request and re-submit it.  Here are some basic guidelines to help you craft requests that will be upheld by the courts:

1. Make sure that your request seeks a record, and not information. Invalid Request: “Please provide the times when Employee X arrives to work.”  Valid Request ...

Pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), meeting minutes must be “promptly available” to the public.  Our courts have held that “promptly available” means within two weeks after the public body’s last meeting or at least 48 hours prior to the next meeting. At any point after that, you are free to submit an OPRA request for the minutes and access must be granted within seven (7) business days.  But what about closed/executive session minutes?

OPMA allows a public body to meet in closed session to shield certain information from the public. Among other things, these ...

Per OPRA, public agencies must respond to a request for records within seven business days. But what do you do if the government fails to respond (a deemed denial) or unlawfully refuses to grant access to the records?

The best course of action is to immediately speak to an attorney, who can work with you to gain access to the records. This frequently requires a lawsuit filed in Superior Court.  The most important thing to remember is that your action must be filed within the statute of limitations, which is 45 days. The process for filing in Superior Court is as follows:

• A Verified Complaint and ...

Over the past few years, New Jersey courts have expanded the definition of “public agency” under the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) so that it covers more than what is traditionally thought to be a government agency (i.e. municipalities and state agencies).  Through a series of cases, our courts have made it clear that non-profit corporations can be subject to OPRA if they serve as an “instrumentality” of a public agency.

Last week, the Hon. Judge Peter E. Doyne held that the Rutherford Downtown Partnership (“RDP”), a non-profit organization that manages the ...