Communication
Dear Toms River FD1,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
Administrators communication with all legal services and invoices for all legal services.
Yours faithfully,
Anonymous
I will be out of the office from Monday, August 15, 2022 and returning on
Monday, August 22, 2022. I will have very limited access to telephone
and e-mail. If you need immediate assistance, please contact the
administration office at (732) 341-4441.
Dear Requestor:
The Toms River Fire District No. 1, Board of Commissioners (hereinafter “Board”) is in receipt of your Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) request, which seeks:
“Administrators communication with all legal services and invoices for all legal services.”
The above request is overly broad, and does not specify a specific range of dates. See MAG Entm’t, LLC v. Div. of ABC, 375 N.J. Super. 534 (App. Div. 2005). In the event you wish to clarify your request to provide a date range, please submit a follow-up request.
Sincerely,
Brian Kubiel
Dear Brian Kubiel,
Please provide “Administrators communication with all legal services and invoices for all legal services.” Ranging from January 2017 until today. This includes, emails, text messages, phone call records and any phone call recordings that exist.
Yours sincerely,
Anonymous
August 30, 2022
Via Electronic Mail ([OPRA #34807 email])
Anonymous
Re: OPRA Request: Attorney Communications from 2017 to present
Dear Requestor:
The Toms River Fire District No. 1, Board of Commissioners (hereinafter “Board”) is in receipt of your Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) request, which seeks:
“Administrators communication with all legal services and invoices for all legal services, ranging from January 2017 to [August 22, 2022]. This includes emails, text messages phone call records, and ay phone call recordings that exist.”
Your request has generated in excess of fifty-two thousand records (52,000), all of which may contain attorney-client privileged materials that need to reviewed for redactions. The New Jersey Courts have concluded that such a request involving thousands of documents containing attorney-client privileged materials qualifies for a “special service charge.” See Fisher v. Division of Law, 400 N.J. Super. 61, 65 (App. Div. 2008) (Request for attorney emails could not be handled by clerical staff, and could only be reviewed by attorneys due to potential attorney-client privileged information; special service charge seeking cost for attorneys’ 55 hours of review and redaction of 15,000 emails found to be appropriate and reasonable).
In the event you would like to continue with this request, we shall require a thirty (30) business day extension to allow the attorney to review and redact all of the records. Moreover, before any review can begin of the 52,000+ records, we must first receive confirmation that you shall pay the special service fee charge. In the above-referenced Fisher decision, 55 hours of review for 15,000 emails of attorney-client privileged materials was found to be appropriate so long as the lowest-salaried attorney was tasked with review. In this instance, the Board’s agreement with the law firm of Rothstein, Mandell, Strohm, Halm and Cipriani, P.C.’s review of OPRA-related materials for an Associate-level attorney (i.e. the lowest salaried attorney) is $190.00 per hour. Based on the Fisher decision, this would equate to approximately one hundred sixty-five hours of work, totaling approximately thirty-one thousand three hundred fifty dollars ($31,350.00).
At your convenience, please advise if you consent to this special service charge. Otherwise, please provide a clarification for your request.
Sincerely,
Brian Kubiel