Must I Use the Agency’s Official Request Form?

Most public agencies have adopted official OPRA Request Forms that they place on their websites.  For frequent requestors, filling out the official form each and every time a request is made can be time consuming so many opt to send their requests in the body of an email to the records custodian.  According to New Jersey case law, this is perfectly acceptable.  In Renna v. County of Union, 407 N.J. Super. 230 (App. Div. 2009), the Appellate Division held that no public agency may deny an OPRA request simply because the requestor did not use the agency’s official OPRA Request Form.  However, a requestor still must be careful to provide the agency with enough information to properly process the request.  We recommend the following template when submitting your request via email:

Please accept this e-mail as my request for government records in accordance with the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and the common law right of access. Please respond and send all responsive documents in electronic format to me via e-mail at your name @ your address.com.

Records requested:

[Insert your records request here.]

I would appreciate if you would acknowledge your receipt of this e-mail.

Thank you for granting access to these records within seven business days.

Your Name
Your Address
Your Phone Number
Your Email Address

If you wish to receive the documents in some other format, or wish to pick up hard copies, you must indicate such.

For more information about this blog post or any other OPRA question, please contact cgriffin@pashmanstein.com.