A New Jersey court has found that records of settlements reached by insurance companies on behalf of government entities should be open to the public.

In 2008, lawyer Mark Cimino asked used the state's Open Public Records Act to request copies of legal settlements involving Gloucester County government.

The county argued that the settlements were made by insurance companies and that records of them were stored with the firms.

A lower court judge agreed that those factors meant the documents in question were not covered by the open records law.

But today, a three-judge appeals panel reversed the ruling, sending it back to a lower court.