Dear UC Research,

The Old Bridge Township Records Custodian received your Open Public
Records Act (OPRA) request on May 28, 2020.  As such, the seven (7)
business day deadline to respond to your request is June 8, 2020.  This
response to your request is being provided to you on the 7th business day
after the custodian’s receipt of said request. 

Your OPRA request sought access to the following:

The Township of Old Bridge does not maintain any such list of lawsuits,
therefore, there is no responsive record to your request.  Further, when a
request is “complex” because it fails to specifically identify the
documents sought, then that request is not “encompassed” by OPRA. 
Custodians are not required to conduct research or create new records in
response to an OPRA request.  This request seeks information or asks
questions and does not identify specific government records.  As such,
your request is an invalid OPRA request and is denied.  See New Jersey
Builders Association v. New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, 390
N.J.Super. 166, 180 (App. Div. 2007).  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.  See Bent v. Stafford Police Department, 381
N.J.Super. 30, 37 (App. Div.  2005).

Sincerely,

Gretchen McCarthy

Gretchen McCarthy, RMC

Deputy Municipal Clerk

Old Bridge Township

Thomas J. English Administration Building

One Old Bridge Plaza

Old Bridge, NJ 08857

(732)721-5600, ext. 2210

-----Original Message-----
From: Taeho Kim <[OPRA #12556 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2020 4:13 PM
To: OpraRequests <[Old Bridge Township request email]>
Subject: OPRA request - OPRA: police officer-involved lawsuits 2012-2019

Dear Old Bridge Township,

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:

1. A list of all lawsuits and cases in which any officer of the police
department was involved between 2012 and 2019. For each lawsuit/case,
please provide the date (month and year) of the alleged incident at issue,
whether the alleged incident was excessive force, settlement amount (if
any), and final compensation amount ruled (if any).

2. Please provide copies of the complaint in any lawsuits and cases
described above.

Yours faithfully,

UC Research

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