State officials face OPRA penalties for non-disclosure of Bridgegate records

An appellate court has ruled that unnamed state officials could face civil penalties for failing to release Bridgegate-related documents sought by a news outlet under the Open Public Records Act.   New Jersey Law Journal Unidentified Christie Aides Subject to Bridgegate OPRA Fines by Michael Booth August 3, 2017      

Commentary on the “No need to confirm nor deny” Appellate ruling

by Raymond Baldino, Esq.   NJFOG foreword: On 8/31/16, the Appellate Division upheld a lower court ruling that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office could respond to an OPRA request by North Jersey Media by neither confirming nor denying the existence of records related to a Catholic priest who had not been arrested or charged with Read More …

Appellate Division rules for release of dog bite dashcam video

On June 30, 2016, the NJ Appellate Division issued a published (and thus precedential) decision in John Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, Docket No. A-4226-14T3, an OPRA case seeking release of a police dashcam video depicting a police dog attack on a female motorist. A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to affirm a lower court Read More …

Camden County Judge allows release of racist texts

Courier-Post By Jim Walsh Nov. 17, 2015 (full article here) CAMDEN – Corrections officers who smuggled cellphones into Camden County Jail had no right to privacy once the phones were discovered by investigators, a state judge said Monday. Superior Court Judge Louis Meloni made that finding in rejecting an effort to keep secret more than Read More …

Fallout of the Appellate Division’s Lyndhurst ruling

NJFOG previously posted an article about the June 11 Appellate Court ruling in North Jersey Media Group, Inc. v. Township of Lyndhurst. The decision, available here, severely restricts access to a wide range of law enforcement records that many trial courts had previously opined are public. The inevitable fallout of the Lyndhurst decision is now being felt Read More …