Attorney General’s Office violated public records law by witholding email logs
Legal Counsel: CJ Griffin, Esq. - Pashman Stein Walder Hayden
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office was found to have violated the Open Public Records Act by denying my request for copies of email logs for the OAG’s custodian of records. I requested the email logs as a part of my advocacy on behalf of my statewide freedom of information website, OPRAmachine. The email logs provided insight into the practices of OAG when it comes to handling OPRA requests.
Question Presented
Was the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office’s denial of a request for copies for email logs - on the basis that all of the logs should be withheld because a portion contained confidential information - a violation of the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.?
Holding
Judge Mary Jacobson, A.J.S.C. held that the Attorney General’s refusal to produce the logs as originally requested constituted a violation of OPRA and ordered the OAG to disclose the requested email logs that were responsive to the initial public records request.
Outcome
The Attorney General’s office eventually complied with the court order and turned over the responsive email logs.
In the interest of saving resources, I voluntarily waived the portions of the email logs that did not pertain to the deputy attorney general’s other roles outside of complying with the state’s Open Public Records Act in order to prevent any further delays to accessing the requested public records.
