Two state legislators are trying to find colleagues to sign onto a proposal they want to introduce that would remove some records from the state courts’ Web site. Yesterday, Rep. Robin Vos and Sen. Julie Lassa circulated a proposal that would remove the records of civil and criminal cases from the Consolidated Court Automated Program (CCAP) once:
The case or charge has been dismissed.
The defendant has been found not guilty of all the charges.
The case or charge has been overturned on appeal and dismissed.
Those records would still exist in courthouses around the state, but they would not be accessible via the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access (WCCA) Web site. The site currently displays a statement explaining when charges have been dropped before someone accesses those records online. But apparently that explanation is not sufficient for the two legislators promoting this change. This appears to be poor public policy for a state that has a strong history of open records and open government. It means that judges, attorneys or members of the public attempting to seek out information online would find records very different from what would be available to them in the courthouse. Essentially, it would create two sets of records, including an electronic one that would not reflect the actual record of Wisconsin’s courts. That would not serve attorneys, judges, journalists or other members of the public who utilize those records.
1 Comments on This Article
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I am afraid I am inclined to agree. However, I have always been in favor of not disclosing arrests where a conviction did not result. I believe an employer has the right to know if you have been convicted of a crime. I'm not sure he has a right to know if you have ever been charged with a crime. But I can see no way to keep that secret as long as our court records must reflect actual court activity and not merely convictions. And, I see no reason to eliminate court activity from our records, whether electronic or paper. I absolutely feel we must be expanding the access to court documents electronically and not limiting them. In particular, we must press for electronic filing of court documents, which will materially help in determining why one case or another was not prosecuted, or why a guilty verdict was not reached. The CCAP framework is still too flimsy. We need more data to flesh it out. Comment ByMichael Horne Monday, January 21, 2008 at 11:39 AM
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