---
type: "Bill"
title: "Allows commercial farmer to be awarded reasonable costs and attorney fees for defending against bad faith complaints under \"Right to Farm Act\"."
description: "Allows commercial farmer to be awarded reasonable costs and attorney fees for defending against bad faith complaints under \"Right to Farm Act\"."
jurisdiction: "us/states/nj"
legislature: "New Jersey Legislature"
session: "221"
identifier: "A 4603"
citation: "New Jersey A 4603 (221)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["AGRICULTURE"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Freiman, Roy", "Peterpaul, Luanne M.", "Sauickie, Alex", "Singleton, Troy", "Space, Parker"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 8
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2024-06-17T04:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2025-11-13T05:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/700ecef8-1bae-4ce6-9cd0-f82e9df97841"
source_url: "https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/leg-databases/"
source_hash: "518b62f7d93d256687fb770b7f3e160ce81e899f77ce5820dd955c13ed413142"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-nj"]
---

# New Jersey A 4603 (221) — Allows commercial farmer to be awarded reasonable costs and attorney fees for defending against bad faith complaints under "Right to Farm Act".

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Introduced Version** (committee substitute) — [source](https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/Bills/2024/A5000/4603_I1.HTM)

## Votes

- Reported favorably out of committee — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- 3RDG FINAL PASSAGE — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- 3RDG FINAL PASSAGE — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported favorably out of committee — **5–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Freiman, Roy — primary (person)
- Peterpaul, Luanne M. — primary (person)
- Sauickie, Alex — primary (person)
- Singleton, Troy — primary (person)
- Space, Parker — primary (person)
- Clifton, Robert D. — cosponsor (person)
- Drulis, Mitchelle — cosponsor (person)
- Flynn, Victoria A. — cosponsor (person)
- McKnight, Angela V. — cosponsor (person)
- Scharfenberger, Gerry — cosponsor (person)
- Simonsen, Erik K. — cosponsor (person)
- Speight, Shanique — cosponsor (person)
- Swain, Lisa — cosponsor (person)
- Tiver, Latham — cosponsor (person)
- Torrissi, Michael — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2024-06-17T04:00:00+00:00** Introduced in the Assembly, Referred to Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2024-10-24T04:00:00+00:00** Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading `committee-passage`
- **2024-12-19T05:00:00+00:00** Passed Assembly (73-0-0) `passage`
- **2025-01-14T05:00:00+00:00** Received in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee `referral-committee`
- **2025-06-12T04:00:00+00:00** Reported out of Senate Committee, 2nd Reading `committee-passage`
- **2025-06-30T04:00:00+00:00** Substituted for S3662
- **2025-06-30T04:00:00+00:00** Passed Senate (Passed Both Houses) (39-0) `passage`
- **2025-11-13T05:00:00+00:00** Approved P.L.2025, c.156. `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/700ecef8-1bae-4ce6-9cd0-f82e9df97841`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official New Jersey legislature records).