“Unpublished opinions” are not published in the law books and are not ordinarily written about in legal periodicals. Unless somebody calls attention to them, they might 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 I think that it’s important that court opinions, even if they are not precedential, are easily accessible for future use.

John Paff v. Warren County Prosecutor’s Office
Warren County, Docket No. WRN-L-0034-13
Trial Judge: Hon. Amy O’Connor, J.S.C.
December 8, 2015
Click here for the Appellate Division’s decision.
Click here for trial court rulings

Summary:  Appellate Division affirmed trial court’s order disclosing certain records pertaining to an investigation of sheriff officers who used county-owned generators for their personal use during Superstorm Sandy.

Update: December 28, 2015:

The Warren County Prosecutor’s office called my attorney, Walter Luers, this morning and advised that a) that office (as opposed to County itself) will be taking over the case, b) it is going to petition the New Jersey Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the Appellate Division’s disclosure ruling and c) that it will seek to extend the 30 day stay that the Appellate Division set for disclosure of the records.

Since such motions for stay extensions are almost always granted, I consented to the stay extension.

 Update: April 29, 2016:

 The Warren County Prosecutor’s petition to the Supreme Court was denied.

Chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project. Please send all comments to paff@pobox.com