New Jersey's Open Public Records Act ("OPRA"), provides its citizens and others the right to obtain information from its government. Municipalities, counties, agencies and other branches of the government must allow people access to its information. That access is not unfettered, but it is very wide. While the government responds to many OPRA appropriately, that does not always happen. When the government has refused to provide documents in response to an OPRA request, the requester has remedies. The requester can file a complaint with the Open Public Records Council or it can file a lawsuit in the Superior Court of New Jersey.
There are many uses of OPRA requests. Sometimes you are curious as to what is going on. Other times you would like the information so as to help you with a project for a client. Other times, you are in litigation with the government and you are unable to get the information through the normal discovery process. OPRA provides access to this information.
Frascella & Pisauro has experience in pursuing OPRA requester remedies. Under the law if a record is improperly denied by the government, the requester can be entitled to recoup its attorney fees and costs incurred. Our last two cases have resulted in opinions in favor of the release of the requested documents. In Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility v. NJ Department of Environmental Protection, a case that may be one that has not been dealt with in the State, the Court has issued an opinion requiring the Department to release information related to nominees of their Science Advisory Board.