Public bodies often receive overbroad OPRA requests that don’t identify specific records. These requests are written in the style of discovery interrogatories, demanding all correspondence about a topic, or all correspondence involving various people or entities. The courts have ruled that this type of request is invalid.

The Appellate Division has once again upheld the denial of such an invalid request, in an unpublished opinion, Serringer v. Office of the Governor.

The request sought all correspondence between the Governor’s Office and Choose NJ, Inc. between 1/1/13 and 4/24/15. The court held that this is an invalid blanket request. The court said that the request’s failure to identify the subject matter of the correspondence rendered it improper, as answering the request would have required every employee of the Governor’s Office to search every file and email account for potentially relevant records.