“Unpublished opinions” are not published in the law books and are not ordinarily written about in legal periodicals. Unless somebody puts them on-line and calls attention to them, they are likely not to be located by people who may want to search for them. I think that it’s important that court opinions, even if they are not precedential, are easily accessible for future use.

I have converted the scanned opinion to a searchable text version. A link to the scan is contained within the footer to the live document.

    Terence Jones v. Deptford Township et al
    Gloucester County, Docket No. GLO-L-2105-11
    Hon. Georgia M. Curio, A.J.S.C.
    August 13, 2012
    Click here for the opinion.

    Findings: a) DVD of video on file with the police was a government record under both the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and the common law right of access; b) DVD was exempt under OPRA due to the “criminal investigatory record” exception and c) governmental interest in confidentiality of this particular closed investigation did not outweigh citizen’s right to access.  Also, although not recited in the opinion, the Court ordered Defendant to pay Plaintiff’s costs and counsel fees.

Chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project. Please send all comments to [email protected]