NJ Appellate Division Expands OPRA Obligations: Custodians Must Disclose Non-Exempt Information to Avoid Attorney’s Fees

The New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed the decision of the lower court in awarding attorney’s fees pursuant to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) for a failure to respond to an information request, although a specific document request was not made. As a result of this ruling, records custodians now must review documents and produce information that is not exempt, even if the document as a whole is exempt from production, to avoid the potential of an award of attorney’s fees to plaintiffs as prevailing parties. 

In Ciolek v. Township of Roxbury, Docket No: A-1068-23 (App. Div. March 7, 2025), in response to the plaintiff’s OPRA request, the Law Division conducted an in-camera review of documents. The plaintiff requested police reports and notes related to two individuals and one location. Following the in-camera review, the court ordered the disclosure of specific non-exempt information and awarded attorney’s fees to the plaintiff. The defendant/township appealed, arguing the plaintiff failed to specifically request information with the OPRA request.

The Appellate Division affirmed, holding that the defendant violated N.J.S.A. 47:1A-6 by not providing non-exempt information, apart from documents themselves, although the documents to be produced were exempt. The court found that it was not expanding the role of the records custodian, who not only had a requirement to produce documents, but to extract information from those documents that was not exempt pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3(b). As a result, the Appellate Division held that the plaintiff was the prevailing party and entitled to attorney’s fees. 

The significance of this case is that records custodians now have an added duty, despite the court’s finding that records custodians always had this requirement. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions regarding this case or other issues pertaining to OPRA. 

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