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Senate committee approves bill to limit CCAP

By: Eric Heisig//March 6, 2014//

Senate committee approves bill to limit CCAP

By: Eric Heisig//March 6, 2014//

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A bill that would remove case information from the state courts’ online records system passed out of a state Senate committee Thursday morning.

SB 526 would require the state courts’ office to remove information about felony cases from the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access website within 120 days of being notified that charges were dismissed or that a defendant was found not guilty. The same would go for civil forfeiture cases, though there would be a 90-day timetable.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend. With no discussion, it passed 5-0 out of the Senate’s judiciary committee, which Grothman chairs.

The bill needs go to the full Senate for approval. It also would need to be approved by the Assembly and signed by Gov. Scott Walker.

The bill is sponsored in the Assembly by Rep. Mary Czaja, R-Irma. A public hearing for the bill was held Feb. 6 in the Assembly’s corrections committee.

Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, or WCCA, is commonly referred to as CCAP — Consolidated Court Automation Programs – which is a statewide, online case management system for the circuit courts. CCAP operates the WCCA system as its public access component. The website gets millions of page views a day.

Supporters of the bill say information on the website adversely affects those who were acquitted of a crime when they try to get a job or housing. Those who oppose it say the bill is an attempt to restrict access to a valuable resource.

Director of State Courts John Voelker also opposes the bill because it does not address the physical copies of records held in county clerks of court offices. In effect, he has said, that would create two different sets of records.

The Joint Legislative Council set up committees in 2007 and 2010 to look at possible legislation to allow records to be expunged for certain offenses and for those who were acquitted. However, neither committee ended up making any recommendations. Similar bills to limit CCAP have been unsuccessful in the current and past sessions.

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