The appellate litigation group at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden in Hackensack handled numerous important cases, and saw its share of successes, in 2018. The group obtained a ruling from the Appellate Division that the NJSPCA is subject to the state Open Public Records Act as an arm of the state, leading to legislation to codify the ruling. Pashman Stein also represented OPRA plaintiffs in a case yielding an Appellate Division ruling that the statute’s applicability isn’t limited to New Jersey residents. In another, the state Supreme Court held “the sale of government property at a public auction is a quintessential public event that calls for transparency.” And in Petro-Lubricant Testing Labs., Inc. v. Adelman, Pashman Stein represented a blogger sued for defamation, and argued successfully before the high court that minor changes to digital articles don’t constitute republication for purposes of restarting the statute of limitations on a libel claim.

*Editor’s Note: Managing partner Michael Stein provided the following responses.