CCAP - Wisconsin Court Access Online (Milwaukee, Sheboygan: rentals, evictions, attorneys)

[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.

[UW Badgers]

I don't find anything wrong with the records being online. We live in Iowa now and you can search records here as well, just as easily. I do childcare and I checked out a lady that wanted me to watch her kids. There was no way this lady was stepping foot in my house. I was glad to be able to check things out. It makes it easy for my husband who has to look up stuff when hiring people as well. In this day and age, nothing should surprise anyone.

[JoshB]

I'm glad we have the CCAP. We had a rental property and let some bozos in and never did checkout CCAP until after the court hearings we had. Any ways next time were going straight to CCAP! I agree with UW Badgers. What privacy is there anyways in this day and age?

[Nuclear_Art]

It's great, the way open governmental records should be. I'm of the mind that if people want anonymity there are ways to go about it. The biggest way is to keep your nose clean. Most businesses as a matter of course do a paid background check that is more extensive than this.

[wanderlusting]

It's fun to dig up the dirt on people you know personally. Sure, it's no fun if you're the one being looked up. I can see why some of the info would seem unfair to list. Some of it has no bearing on whether a person would make a good employee or not. I guess as long as criminal records remain public, there's no way of getting around it. Even if it wasn't online, anyone could go to the courthouse and check someone out. BTW, what insane and inane person would not hire someone because they went through a divorce or had a few speeding tickets.

[Alexus]

Thanks for this post. Many people won't like this. I have already looked up a bunch of my friends and found some very surprising information. Makes me glad that I never got in trouble there.

[karfar]

Where I work, we HAVE to check CCAP & if any cases were dismissed, we do not look at those. And even for ones where the person was convicted, we do not automatically pass over them. It must be considered job-related. However, I do have a friend who owns a business & they have not called people for interviews based on what they've seen on CCAP, not the dismissed cases but others. This is a small business though. I guess I don't care about people looking me up, I have nothing serious on there. Plus, like you mentioned, if I were to date someone, I check them on that as well, you never know. It may show you what they were charged w/, but it doesn't give you the police report, so just because someone may have a disorderly conduct on there, it doesn't necessarily mean it was something serious.

[43north87west]

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.

I am not always right about things, but I am ALWAYS RIGHT ABOUT PEOPLE. And I do mean, I am *always* right. The only time I was wrong, was long ago when I second guessed myself over and over. Not anymore, I hit the nail on the head with only a short exposure to a person. That's probably what makes me so good at hiring people. My people never have problems, never leave the company, do a great job.

But I digress... Since I'm a believer in the "where there's smoke" theory:

I looked up a couple of people who I met over the years in Milwaukee, who just didn't seem "right". I had no evidence or knowledge that they were anything but decent people, except that I just got a bad feeling. Nothing more, no indications other than my 100%-right sixth sense.

Well whaddya know! One has over 30 convictions ranging from (10+) evictions with amounts close to or exceeding $9k apiece. The rest range from a > $30K unspecified damage claim, one count of battery, two counts of fraud, and threatening with telephone/concealed ID (that one was interesting). And that's just ONE guy, and he really gets around, he's got cases in every county from Sheboygan to the state line. And it is HIM, his name (totally unique, has two first names and NMI), and his DOB. This further proves my point about always being right about people.

The rest of them have similar (but lesser) records. One of them left town altogether, probably a good decision to just press "RESET" on his life. Most interesting of all, three of these people had at least ONE case that involved the other three! Birds of a feather...

That said, most of the people I know, including me, turned up a big fat ZERO.

With respect to whether this information is good to have, there is a big difference between someone who has a clustered group of financial problems ten years ago followed by nothing, and a person who has a running court case every few months for the last ten years. Especially when they've got some of the nice ones like battery, menacing threats and the like. Sure, bad things happen to good people. But more bad things, seem to accompany bad people.

As an employer, I couldn't infer much from a record of a guy who had no problems except for a couple of speeding tickets and a restraining order. Or a business owner who was involved in some cases over the years, which is to be expected if one does business for long enough. That doesn't necessarily compute into anything personality-wise. Even if it can not be used to deny employment, it doesn't change my opinion of them, because there are TWO SIDES to every story.

But...

A guy with a restraining order, three evictions, battery, ten traffic violations, maybe an OWI or three, and some financial actions, probably means that the guy does not have his act together. Could I be wrong? Sure, I *could* be.

But I'm not.

[arimor]

Originally Posted by JoshB

I'm glad we have the CCAP. We had a rental property and let some bozos in and never did checkout CCAP until after the court hearings we had. Any ways next time were going straight to CCAP! I agree with UW Badgers. What privacy is there anyways in this day and age?

thats a good thing but that does not mean the individuals you check who are clean cant be dirty..........

[wanderlusting]

What privacy is there anyways in this day and age?

This attitude amazes me. It's sad how people are becoming so willing to surrender their privacy rights, and more and more, their civil liberties.