2022-1749
Date Received: 11/2/2022
Status: Under Review
Applicant: Chaim
Information Requested: 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:
Any communication between the township and news agencies regarding
the crackdown on accident chasers.

Yours faithfully,

Chaim

Response: The Township of Lakewood received your Open Public
Records Act (OPRA) request on 11/2/2022 As such, the seven (7)
business day deadline to respond to your request is 11/15/2022.
This response to your request is being provided to you before the
1st business day after the custodian's receipt of said request.

Please be advised that OPRA is a request for a specific government
record. A proper request under OPRA must identify with reasonable
clarity those documents that are desired, and a party cannot
satisfy this requirement by simply requesting all of an agency's
documents on a given topic. See Bent v. Stafford Police
Department, 381 N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005). OPRA is not a
research tool to force government entities to identify and siphon
off information.See Bent v. Stafford Police Department, 381
N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005). Your request does not identify
a specific government records but rather picks a topic and then
asks the Township to research whether or not any of these records
exist. As such, your request is an invalid OPRA request. When a
request is "complex" because it fails to specifically identify the
documents sought, then that request is not "encompassed" by OPRA.
See New Jersey Builders Association v. New Jersey Council on
Affordable Housing, 390 N.J.Super. 166, 180 (App. Div. 2007).

In accordance with Elcavage v. West Milford Twp (Passaic) your
request is invalid. In order to specifically identify the record
please specify the following four (4) characteristics:
(1) the content and/or subject of the correspondence
(2) the specific date or range of dates during which
correspondence was transmitted or the correspondence were
transmitted
(3) must identify the sender (by name or Title)
(4) must identify the recipient (by name or Title)

As previously noted, Township's are not required to conduct
research. Please note requests for "any and all" records are not
valid. Please see MAG Entm't LLC v. Div. of Alcoholic Beverage
Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534 (App. Div. 2005).

At this time, we are seeking clarification. Please respond in
writing and provide all (4) characteristics listed above.

[1]SDL Portal page for OPRA Request
Spatial Data Logic 2021

References

Visible links
1. https://u131632.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click...

2022-1749
Date Received: 11/2/2022
Status: Under Review
Applicant: Chaim
Information Requested: 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:
Any communication between the township and news agencies regarding
the crackdown on accident chasers.

Yours faithfully,

Chaim

The Township had requested clarification of your request on
11/2/2022 with no response. At this time, your OPRA request is
deemed concluded since we did not receive the requested
clarification.

If you are still seeking additonal records, please re-submit with
the requested information.
Spatial Data Logic 2021