Incident reports regarding jail fatality are disclosable under OPRA

Upholding a lower court, an Appellate Court ruled on 6/4/2018 that incident reports relating to a Union County jail inmate’s death are disclosable, subject to appropriate redactions for personal identifiers. The Court rejected the argument that an incident report is exempt from disclosure as a medical record.   NJ Open Government Notes Appeals court rules Read More …

Appellate Court says OPRA request was legally compliant, not overly broad

Following an Appellate Court’s 12/12/2017 ruling that a Jackson resident’s OPRA request was not overly broad, reversing the lower court’s ruling in Wronko v. Jackson Township, the Township Council voted to pay $30K in legal fees to settle the complaint. The lower court ruling noted that the request could result in the production of a Read More …

OPRA’s “reason for separation” does not include motivation for resigning, per Appellate Court

An appellate court ruled that “reason for separation” under OPRA does not include an employee’s motivation for resigning. However, the court also ruled that a records request concerning an employee’s separation should prompt a broad search of agency records, not just the employee’s personnel file.   NJ Law Journal Court Limits OPRA’s Scope in Request Read More …

Appellate Court says State Local Finance Board must have a quorum to act

In an unpublished opinion issued on 11/14/2017, an Appellate Court ruled that the State Local Finance Board (LFB) must have a quorum of two thirds of its members to act. The ruling concerned the LFB’s vote, when only half of its members were present, to overturn the decision of a local ethics board.   NJ Read More …

Appellate Court rules 2-1 for disclosure of dash-cam video

In a split 2-to-1 decision issued on 8/28/2017, an Appellate Court granted a Lakewood resident access to a dash-cam video of a traffic stop that resulted in the arrest and indictment of a police officer.   NJ Law Journal NJ Appeals Court Opens Avenue to Police Dashcam Videos by Michael Booth August 28, 2017   Read More …