Another assault on WCCA

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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.