New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: Appellate Division rules against OPRA requestor

Issue Detail:

 

On March 5, 2010, the Appellate Division ruled that the New Jersey Attorney General's unpublished, written opinions transmitted to state agencies are attorney-client privileged communications and thus exempt from disclosure under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). Agencies rely upon these opinions, known as Administrative Agency Advice (AAA) letters, as interpretations of the statutes and regulations that the agencies apply and enforce. I am the plaintiff and appellant in the case, represented by Richard Gutman of Montclair. The Appellate Division also ruled that the trial court erred by ordering the Attorney General's office to provide me with a list of AAA letters showing the date of the AAA, its docket number, the agency requesting it and the attorney who prepared it. Consequently, the trial court's award of Mr. Gutman's attorney fees was reversed since I was no longer the "prevailing party" in the suit. The AAA letters are, in essence, a body of law that state agencies use to enforce statutes and regulations against citizens. We argued that the AAA letters were not made in professional confidence or in the course of an attorney-client relationship. We also argued that citizens, under the common law right of access, need to know the interpretations of laws that are being enforced against them. We argued that there was a distinction between a government lawyer representing a client in litigation and that same lawyer formulating law that will be applied to others. In support of this argument, we cited two federal appeals court decisions. Yet, the Appellate Division elected to "part company" with the federal appeals court and held instead that "so long as the attorney is providing legal advice in some form, the privilege will apply." The Appellate Division's opinion is on-line. The briefs that were filed in the trial court are on-line at http://www.lpcnj.org/OGTF/SecretLaw.pdf and the 162-page file that contains the exhibits before the trial court are on-line at http://www.lpcnj.org/OGTF/SecretLawExh.pdf John Paff Somerset, New Jersey

Documents:

• This Index File
• Appellate Division opinion in Paff v. Division of Law

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New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: Appellate Division rules against OPRA requestor. March 05, 2010.
URL: http://ogtf.lpcnj.org/201063UT/
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