One at One: Assembly Bill No. 5820 & OPRA

Today’s Issue by Lena Kim:

Whether Assembly Bill No. 5820 impacts the response deadlines for requests made under the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”)?

Answer:

Yes. On June 4, 2021, Governor Murphy signed Assembly Bill No. 5820, which immediately reinstated OPRA’s statutory response deadline of seven business days after receipt of the request, with an exception for any request seeking “records related to the COVID-19 response.” Previously, in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, Governor Murphy signed Assembly Bill No. 3849, which relaxed OPRA’s statutory response deadlines during a period of a declared emergency, including a state of emergency, public health emergency, or state of local disaster emergency. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i)(2). Notwithstanding the continued state of emergency, Assembly Bill No. 5820 restores the previous seven business day response time frame for all OPRA requests seeking records unrelated to the COVID-19 response.

Resources:

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2020/Bills/A9999/5820_I1.PDF

https://nj.gov/governor/news/news/562021/approved/20210604b.shtml

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2020/Bills/A4000/3849_I1.PDF

https://www.state.nj.us/grc/news/alerts/GRC%20Special%20Statement%202021-01%20(Final).pdf

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Caitlin Pletcher, Partner

This post is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.