The GRC has issued a “special statement” (under “OPRA Alerts” on its website) on how to apply the recent amendment to OPRA’, which abolishes the 7-business day response deadline during a period that has been declared a state of emergency, public health emergency, or state or local disaster emergency.

This guidance focuses on the amendment’s statement that although there is no deadline during such a period, the custodian has to “make a reasonable effort, as the circumstances permit, to respond …within seven business days or as soon as possible thereafter.” The GRC construes this requirement as equivalent to the longstanding ability of a custodian to extend the time to respond to an OPRA request where reasonably necessary.

While the GRC’s guidance makes sense, ideally, custodians will not need to litigate over whether they made a reasonable effort to respond to an OPRA request submitted during the current health crisis. Requestors presumably appreciate that due to the extraordinary emergency faced by New Jersey, agencies cannot necessarily answer OPRA requests quickly.