STATE OF NEW JERSEY
215th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2012 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman PAUL D. MORIARTY
District 4 (Camden and Gloucester)
Assemblyman HERB CONAWAY, JR.
District 7 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Requires destruction of records stored on digital copy machines under certain circumstances.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning records stored on certain digital copy machines and supplementing Title 2A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
“Business” means any corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, or other entity, and shall include a public entity.
“Public entity” means the State, and any county, municipality, district, public authority, public agency, and any other political subdivision or public body in the State.
“Records” means any material recorded or preserved by any means.
2. A business shall destroy, or arrange for the destruction of, all records stored on a digital copy machine, which is no longer to be retained by that business, by erasing or otherwise modifying those records to make the records unreadable, undecipherable, or nonreconstructable through generally available means.
3. Any business that willfully or knowingly violates the provisions of this act shall be liable to a penalty of not more than $10,000 for the first offense and not more than $20,000 for the second and each subsequent offense to be collected in a summary proceeding pursuant to the "Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.). The Attorney General shall enforce the provisions of this act.
4. A person damaged in business or property as a result of a violation of this act may sue the actor therefor in the Superior Court and may recover compensatory and punitive damages and the cost of the suit including a reasonable attorney's fee, costs of investigation and litigation.
5. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that a business destroy, or arrange for the destruction of, all records stored on a digital copy machine, which is no longer to be retained by that business, by erasing or otherwise modifying those records to make them unreadable, undecipherable, or nonreconstructable through generally available means.
Recent news reports indicate that most digital copy machines use internal hard drives which store every document that has been scanned, printed, faxed, or emailed by the machine. Those electronic records will remain on a hard drive until the hard drive is erased.
Under the bill, a business that willfully or knowingly violates the provisions is liable to a penalty of not more than $10,000 for the first offense and not more than $20,000 for the second and each subsequent offense. The Attorney General is responsible for enforcement.
A person damaged in business or property as a result of a violation may sue in Superior Court and may recover compensatory and punitive damages and the cost of the suit including a reasonable attorney's fee and costs of investigation and litigation.