Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 384 posts · 109 votes
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that the Wisconsin legislature is considering purging CCAP of cases in which charges were dismissed, the defendant was found not guilty or the charge was overturned on appeal.
For those who are not familiar, CCAP is the online database of Wisconsin court records.
CCAP is obviously a valuable tool for WI landlords - what do fellow landlords think of this potential change?
I like to know if an eviction has been filed, even if it's been dismissed. To have a landlord go to filing the eviction says something about the tenant.
I don't think it should have that great an impact on landlords since the actual eviction convictions will still be there. Also, in addition to using other evaluation criteria, I require prior landlord reference before renting. So if they have no rental history or bad rental history, I pass on the candidate.
I like to know if an eviction has been filed, even if it's been dismissed. To have a landlord go to filing the eviction says something about the tenant.
Our local sheriff seemed unsure as to the future of ccap entirely. I like how it is currently, but even with those removed it is still a valuable tool. Hopefully it never goes away.
I'm a fan of ccap for tenant screening, but I'm not a fan of middle initials, dob and address's for the world to have access too. If You have a speeding ticket, odds are, that info is on there.
If they did remove dismissed (Eviction) cases, what are the odds of that being the only legal issue for that person, on ccap. And if it were dismissed, would that mean that they paid the landlord before the court date?
@John Adamkewitz@Dawn Anastasi@Steve Foth@Dorothy York Thanks for the responses. Not only can evictions be dismissed as Dawn said, but so can criminal charges due to plea bargaining, prosecutor workload and other reasons. If these records are purged landlords will simply have less information to go on. I can see why this will help those who have been falsely charged with something, but it will prevent landlords from learning valuable information.
I read this on Tristan Pettit's blog and I can see this as a very valuable reason for why the CCAP should keep dismissed charges. Tell me if you agree.
Many people unfamiliar with the criminal justice system assume that if a case was dismissed that that means that it was filed in error. While that certainly does occur, that is not the typical situation in which a case is dismissed. The majority of criminal cases are dismissed, not because they were improperly filed, but rather because the victim witness did not appear at trial to testify against the defendant and therefore the State could not prove their case. This happens quite often especially in crimes involving domestic violence.
When I was younger (and stupider) I used to do some criminal defense work. I finally quit being a criminal defense attorney after I represented a young man that was charged for the 8th time with Domestic Violence – Battery. It was alleged that he beat up his girlfriend. All 8 times it was alleged that he beat up his girlfriend. I attempted to meet with my client to prepare for trial. He refused, just smiled, and told me that it was not necessary. I told him that I could not represent him properly if we didn't prepare. He told me again not to worry and that there would not be a trial. I reminded him that there was a “no contact” order in place and that he was not allowed to contact the alleged victim so how would he know if she was or was not going to appear in court to testify against him. He smiled and said he would never do anything against the law.
The trial date came and the victim did not show. As a result the District Attorney was forced to dismiss the charge against my client as without the victim the DA could not meet their burden. My client smiled at me and said “See, I told you you didn't need to worry – no trial.” He then walked out of the court room.
Even though I was young and stupid, I was not naive. I knew very well that this individual most likley had talked to the victim and either threatened to harm her if she came to court to testify against him or he actually did harm her to make sure she understood. The same thing probably happened the prior 7 occassions as well.
I would not want to rent to this person.
Under this new CCAP bill, those 8 criminal charges for DV-Battery against my client would be removed from CCAP and a future landlord would not even know they had been filed or that s/he would be renting to a person that felt it was acceptable to beat up his girlfriend whenever he couldn’t control his anger management issues.