CCAP - Wisconsin Court Access Online (Madison, Green Bay: felony, attorney, employment)

[karfar]

Seriously, I've had enough w/your long-winded posts. Why not send a DM so the rest of us aren't harassed by it?

[Badger]

Originally Posted by karfar

Seriously, I've had enough w/your long-winded posts. Why not send a DM so the rest of us aren't harassed by it?

is your down arrow key broken?

[Drover]

Oooh lookie, another chapter to add to the classic work, "Epic Screeds Re: CCAP, Volume XXIV".

[Freedom4US_Citizens]

Originally Posted by FreeSpirited1

Wondering what the general consensus is on this feature provided by Wisconsin, which allows one to search anyone's public court records online.

I believe in the access to public records, but to have it this easy? It sure seems quite invasive and for what purpose, really? Most states require that an interested party go to the proper courthouse to request information, but Wisconsin's CCAP is so easy - you can type in names of people you went to high school with and see if they've been divorced, owe medical bills, etc. I just don't think that it's necessary. I feel guilty even having access to CCAP, like I'm peering into someone's personal tragedy.

Without any effort or cost, anyone can look your name up and see if you've been divorced, were pulled over for a traffic violation, etc. Criminal records appear as well, but even so, some of those read "case dismissed", but if you were going to hire someone, I think it would create enought doubt to not hire a person based on this information.

Perhaps a wiser idea would be if the online access would be available to only attorneys, police and government, etc.; otherwise, it really leaves the door open to discrimination for employment and/or rentals, or the person you were going to date, but not now, because you see they have a dismissed restraining order. Dismissed, but you'll never know what happened, so you'd assume the worst; I would.

I wonder...if an employer had a candidate, looked their name up, found this person to be in the midst of a divorce and hence decided not to hire them. Now, this is just an example I thought of, but if online access were limited, an employer or landlord would be too busy to go downtown - in person - to find out these matters (which are civil or family as opposed to criminal, and would not show up on a background check).

I guess my question is this: Are you are comfortable with just anyone knowing your personal court matters, and having assumptions made about you?

Interested to hear from anyone here who has an opinion on this or believes they may have been judged negatively due to an employer, landlord or potential date finding information about them on CCAP.

Thank you for reading and look forward to replies/thoughts on the subject.

FreeSpirited1,
It's great to see someone realizing what has happened here in WI. I was set up, entrapped and arrested in Waukesha, WI. I was unable to walk any distance and tried repeatedly to get a ride, taxi and even asked if the WI Bar Owner's Association could pay for my taxi fare until I got home and could get them the money.

Now, do you think that I could find an attorney that would represent an "entapment defense" in this state? No, absolutely not. Why? Simply because there is not one single attorney that will go up against the CCAP website and stand up in a court of law and say that his client was entrapped by the very technological system put in place and maintained by attorneys, clerks of courts, judges and WI supreme court justices. I simply will not happen. No matter what the circumsances are. But!!!! ALL THE ATTORNEYS WILL TAKE THE MONEY AND CONVINCE YOU THAT THEY 'CAN' DO SOMETHING FOR YOU, WHILE ALL THE WHILE KNOWING PERFECTLY WELL THERE IS ABOSLUTELY NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE OR THEY ARE WILLING TO DO IN TERMS OF DEFENDING YOU IN COURT. I know this from personal experience since I have lost over twenty-seven thousand dollars on attorneys and not once did any of the three attorneys bring up the 'affirmative defense of entrapment' in court. Sad. Sickeningly pathetic.

In a mad rush to be the first state in the US (per Wisconsin Blue Book 2005-2006) to have a 'virtual judicial' system, WI has over looked it's citizen constitutional rights to privacy. This is plainly and clearly evidenced by the statement, also in the aforementioned site to the WI Blue Book, that a director of the open legal website, WI's CCAP, was appointed a director to oversee issues pertaining to privacy. A directory, Voelker, was not appointed until over six years after the website "going live" on (per Blue Book) 4/5/1999 (this date is not totally correct since I caught them in a lie when I wrote to the agency and inquired if this date was accurate and they said yes, only to see a posting of an additional web page on the CCAP website which demonstrated my correctness in that the website went 'live' in the county that I resided in in the year 1997). The Blue Book goes onto to say that a 'group' that initially disbanded after having uploaded the site to the WWW, until ?. This basically implies for six years there was no oversight committee to protect the rights of WI citizens while the website was utilized by virtually every level of society within this state, other states of the US and other areas of the world. Hmmm? Wow, talk about a security breach for our state or even nation, hey? Ok, I may sound like I'm getting a bit 'uptight' or 'paraniod about our govt.'. NOT!!! The WWW is world wide. People in this state somehow do not grasp this concept when their "dear old aunt clara" passes away and her estate, unforunate as it might be, winds up in probate court which entitles the circuit courts of WI to post the estimated value of her estate, her addresss, etc. (I'm surprised they have not posted the medical history too).

I guess, being that I have an education in computers and paralegal, I cannot see what benefit the website is other than to people who use it to deny employment, discriminate against housing and on more occassions than anyone would like to realize, used to discriminate and deny complete fair medical attention and services, equal educational opportunties and other invasions of private life.

I doubt that Wisconsin's attorneys and judges have perfected the "due process stages of litigation" within it's state courts to the point of making it a process that should be allowed to be displayed for the entire world to review and utilize as a basis for a democratic society. Why should the citizens be made to be a spectical across the entire world just because they unfortunately may find themselves in a 'tough time' or in my case entrapped (in which the website was utilized to entrap me since the manage knew perfectly well that I would become a felon and the potential of my going to prison was 99.9%. They even perhaps figured that I would loose my new job I was due to start two weeks later, as a computer technician, with Humana and my land on Washington Island. They also knew from the comments made by the aquaintance I had given a ride to the establishment -otherwise I wouldn't have been there- that I had been married to a man, and former Union President, that was involved in a state wide and perhaps world wide recognized case where a man was beaten to unconsciousness, a weight hung around his neck and thrown into a pulp vat in Green Bay, WI at the James Rivers Paper Mill on November 21st, 1992, to drown. I had asked for my divorce money back and it led to a sequence of events which resulted in my ex husband having taken out his anger on a close relative of my initial divorce attorney, the guy in the vat. What's even funnier about the attorneys in this state and how snakey they are is that the finalizing attorney for my divorce, who was referred to me by my first attorney, picked up the 'wrongful death lawsuit' against the ex husband (who walked away scot free) and six other guys that went to prison. Yeah, when the attoneys see the money, ethics go out the window in a very quick hurry. Especially in this state!!!!!! All attoneys in this state are crooks.

Since the information is free in this state, for eveyone across the US and world to see and use against who ever shows up on the circuit courts website for whatever, perhaps the standard of education and accountablity for attorneys in this state should be raised to a higher threshold. But, alas, values and ethics are not something that can be taught in a classroom, although classes in this subject matter are offered in schools. Ethics, bottomline, cannot be taught. It's something that is instilled in you. How you are raised, etc.

In this state, it's all about stabbing the other person in the back. Who can dig up dirt on the neighbor, the next person over in the cubicle at work at the office in order to keep them from getting the permanent position that is open with company rather than remain on the 'temp' list or by attorneys who receive a call from a potential client and talk to them on the phone -while looking them up online and say 'oh, sure. I can represent you.' knowing perfectly well, it will be an 'easy case' and not much will have to be done in court other than just making an appearance or being there in flesh. This is exactly what happened to me. After having paid an attorney 12 thousand dollars he didn't even have the diligence enough to bring his reading classes to court. Wow!

I am now afraid to go out of my house. I am fortunately out of my apartment in Green Bay where I was continually being harrassed by the neighbor (who had an extensive criminal record) but the Green Bay Police would do nothing about, despite my numerous attempts to try to get them to assist. I believe, just prior to the landlord, prior to selling the units, weeded out the worse of tenants, and placed them in the unit accross from me just to hassle me. The landlord had been in my unit several times, as others had witnessed, which always seemed to be when some legal issue about myself popped up on the CCAP website.

There are numerous instances where women are stalked and beaten up by the use of the CCAP website. I was told this by someone who worked in the courts system.

I just do not get it. What makes my constitutional rights to privacy less important than the citizen in the next state.

In this state, nothing matters other than what's on the CCAP website. If a citizen is not on there, they are lucky. Then the most important this is not getting on the website. For whatever reason. No matter how minor. I went to small claims court for my back. A chriopractor was padding my bill. I represented myself and won. But the data that remained on there was used against me in the hiring process. This was not fair.

With regards to the website being used to 'set up' and 'entrap' a person who honestly tries to get a ride, but takes the chance and drives, only to be called in.....I believe there should be ABSOLUTELY NO BARS IN THIS STATE!! Going to an establishment and being treated equally is a misconcept and it will not ever happen in this state as long as there is a website like CCAP for the establishment to 'look up' someone and treat them like dirt or try to set them up knowing perfectly well that the patron could go to jail/prison/loose their job and loose it all. Going to an establishment or public place should not hinge upon how much money a person has or their reputation in that particular place as being a "regular", which is what the aquaintence was referrerd to in the victim/witness report that was filled out after I was set up/entrapped and arrested. The "regular" was know in the establishment of having numerous outbursts in the establishment, unknown to me since I lived over a hundred miles north of where I was visiting. She was also known for having pushed her own mother down and having left her for dead. I didn't know the details but the establishment did. I was judged by who I walked through the doors with. The "regular", the aquaintance, the person that killed her own mother and was a two time felon. Of course, I was treated even worse after the establishment looked me up on CCAP. They reniged upon an already agreed upon cash advance from my credit card which I had been using througout the course of the time I was there. I asked if they had an ATM maching and received a snide "no". And then the manager said to the only other patron there, "I suppose she wants to write a check", in a very, very nasty tone of voice. I asked if I could, to which she replied "we don't accept out of town checks". I wonder how many "out of town checks" she had cashed prior to my having been there and even afterwards. Ok.

HERE GOES. TO WALK INTO A BAR IN THIS STATE ONLY LEAVES YOURSELF OPEN FOR VICTIMIZATION AND ENTRAPMENT. UNLESS OF COURSE YOU HAVE LOTS OF MONEY (CASH, BUCKS, $$$$, CHING) YOU CAN THROW OVER THE BAR TO MAKE THE ESTABLISHMENT HAPPY. Or if you walk in with a big groug and can't be singled out. It would be suicidal for a woman to walk into a bar alone in this state. Women are simply judges differently and treated differently. I've seen in first hand. CCAP fuels the fire for sexual discrination too. Think about it!

I just cannot understand why the federal government doesn't step in and level the playing field. Meaning simply this, again, what makes my right to privacy more important than the right to privacy to the citizen the next state over? I just do not get it. Every state is different. Not all states post legal, post conviction data online. Not all post the same way. It's been an evolving process by each state since 1997. NOT 1999 AS THE WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK SAYS. Brown County, WI went live in 1997, as I previously stated and proved to the CCAP administrative assistant via correspondences in the spring of 2008. People just don't understand what is happening and has been allowed to go on in this state.

Also, if the data is available for the entire world to see, then why isn't the data of the IP addresses of who logs on and the varous search strings available to the general public!!!!!!! This data itself should be available to any defendant who unfortuntely finds themselves being setup and entrapped by vindictive " b^&*%es" who would rather see me loose my fantastic job and career with Humana and all I own. This is fact in this state. It's a very oppressive, hostile state. The witch hunt continues to provide $$$ to support the virtual judicial system itself. Computer systems, upkeep, maintance is expensive. Waukesha Cts received hundreds and thousands of dollars in 2006 to initiate a new "drug court". Nothing has changed EXCEPT all the new computers throughout the entire corridors within in the courthouse which I am sure were not donated by the community. They were paid for out of the grant. It is a virtual witch hunt.

It is coming up on five years that I was set up and lost my job with Humana. I would have had a wonderful career. In these times especially, it was a job that a person would, as they say 'die for' or 'kill for'. Ok, a bit extreme but you get the picture. Do you really think that the bar manager was so concerned about my securing a ride? No. She was mostly concerned about setting me up and sabotoging my new career. She was judging me by who I was with and treated me according to her judgemental views. She was judging me by what she had seen on the website, after having agreed to advance me the taxi fare, and treated me according to her views, specifically that I had not paid my debt to socieity from a case years earlier. Over five years earlier. But that didn't bother her. All she wanted to do was judge me and 'yes' be vindictive and set me up. Again, I did ask if the Wisconsin's Bar Owner's Association could assist me with taxi fare/ride. Really sad.

Sorry for being so lengthy but WI has to wake up. Wisconsin is listed as having the highes rate of alcoholism in the country. I believe that the statistics are skewed by the numerous entrapments that exist similar to mine. I guess when it happened I thought that perhaps I was the only one that this happened to but nothing could be further from the truth. It's a popularity, vicious, judgemental, nasty game that the bar owners/managers play. Whose got the most $$ and who throws the most over the bar. Let's be realistic. This 'is' the way it is.

If this state continues to have CCAP which is used to ruin people's lives, then there should be no drinking establishments in this state. And something should be done about the use of the website being used to discriminate in other areas of a persons legal and professional life.

[Drover]

Blah blah blah... yap yap yap...

[karfar]

Originally Posted by Drover

Blah blah blah... yap yap yap...

I know, at this point, who even bothers to read the post? Hey, monotonous poster, yeah you-NO ONE CARES!!!

[annkathryn]

Originally Posted by FreeSpirited1

Wondering what the general consensus is on this feature provided by Wisconsin, which allows one to search anyone's public court records online.

I believe in the access to public records, but to have it this easy? It sure seems quite invasive and for what purpose, really? Most states require that an interested party go to the proper courthouse to request information, but Wisconsin's CCAP is so easy - you can type in names of people you went to high school with and see if they've been divorced, owe medical bills, etc. I just don't think that it's necessary. I feel guilty even having access to CCAP, like I'm peering into someone's personal tragedy.

Without any effort or cost, anyone can look your name up and see if you've been divorced, were pulled over for a traffic violation, etc. Criminal records appear as well, but even so, some of those read "case dismissed", but if you were going to hire someone, I think it would create enought doubt to not hire a person based on this information.

Perhaps a wiser idea would be if the online access would be available to only attorneys, police and government, etc.; otherwise, it really leaves the door open to discrimination for employment and/or rentals, or the person you were going to date, but not now, because you see they have a dismissed restraining order. Dismissed, but you'll never know what happened, so you'd assume the worst; I would.

I wonder...if an employer had a candidate, looked their name up, found this person to be in the midst of a divorce and hence decided not to hire them. Now, this is just an example I thought of, but if online access were limited, an employer or landlord would be too busy to go downtown - in person - to find out these matters (which are civil or family as opposed to criminal, and would not show up on a background check).

I guess my question is this: Are you are comfortable with just anyone knowing your personal court matters, and having assumptions made about you?

Interested to hear from anyone here who has an opinion on this or believes they may have been judged negatively due to an employer, landlord or potential date finding information about them on CCAP.

Thank you for reading and look forward to replies/thoughts on the subject.

It's totally wrong of Wisconsin to put these records out there. It's an unforgiving and mean-spirited thing. It's almost like they're proud of it! It makes people in Wis., look like self-righteous jerks!!!!!!!

[annkathryn]

In my opnion, having these private records open, shows that people in wisconsin love making people's lives miserable. It's disgraceful. It says never give someone a chance, never forgive.

[Freedom4US_Citizens]

I totally agree. This is why you should testify at the hearing in the Criminal Justice Committee, scheduled on October 1st, 2009 for to pass the AB340 bill to close public access to the CCAP website.

You can also write to State Representative Marlin Schneider at Marlin.Schneider@legis.wisconsin.gov and voice your thoughts and tell him what you think about shutting down the websit to the general public.

[KC3700]

Originally Posted by Freedom4US_Citizens

I totally agree. This is why you should testify at the hearing in the Criminal Justice Committee, scheduled on October 1st, 2009 for to pass the AB340 bill to close public access to the CCAP website.

I won't.

I'm all about privacy, but seriously, who goes on the CCAP website just for fun? People should have the right to get background info on their families, potential or current employees, potential or current sexual partners, neighbors, etc.

Most of it is traffic related offenses and municipal citations anyway.

And what's with the notion that if CCAP was only available to those in the legal profession and in government it wouldn't be abused? Seems to me like those would be the people who would abuse it.

Also, keep in mind that you have to agree to a contract every time you go to the CCAP website.

I think there are bigger issues regarding law enforcement in Milwaukee and out-state.