SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 506

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: SEPTEMBER 19, 1996

      The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 506.

      This bill would give a member of the Legislature the privilege, which may be claimed by the member or the member's agent or employee, to refuse to disclose in any legal or quasi-legal proceeding the existence or content of any communication or correspondence between the member and any person who has contacted the member in the member's official capacity. Exercise of the privilege would be permissive, rather than mandatory, and a member of the Legislature would be free to disclose or withhold this information.

      The amendments adopted by the committee clarified that this privilege would not extend to any communication or correspondence which is in aid of a violation of civil or criminal law or of a code of ethics and shall not apply to a grand jury proceeding, a criminal proceeding or a civil or administrative enforcement proceeding.