CCAP Committee Speaks Out About Clerks Removing Dismissed Charges From CCAP

I recently posted about the fact that some counties in Wisconsin were unilaterally deciding on their own to remove certain information on CCAP. Specifically, a few counties were opting to remove charges that were dismissed or dropped as a result of plea deals in criminal cases from CCAP.

This practice concerned the committee that was covened to discuss issues related to CCAP in Madison. The Wisconsin Law Journal's blog reported on this issue as did the Associated Press' Todd Richmond.

Essentially the CCAP comittee decided that all Wisconsin court clerks must post all dismissed charges on CCAP and keep them there regardless of whether or not the charges were amended or dismissed.

A state court advisor, Sara Ward-Cassady, explained that the problem regarding some courts removing dismissed or amended criminal charges and others not removing the information, resulted from the state court system's policies on how to handle new charges in a case. She explained that if a disctrict attorney filed amended criminal charges in writing, that in that situation a clerk would renumber the new charges on CCAP and delete old charges from public view. However in situations in which a district attorney would amend charges against a defendant orally, the clerks would not renumber the charges and the orginal charges would be kept.

Whether or not the above is/was the sole reason for the discrepency between counties with regard to removal of certain criminal charges on CCAP is not known. I have a difficult time believing that this would be the only reason especially since only some counties were involved in this practice ---- but that's just my initial thoughts and I do not have all of the necessary facts.

Nonethless, the CCAP committee voted unanimously to include (and keep) all criminal charges on CCAP in the future.

This decision bodes well for landlords should the courts ever attempt to remove stipulated dismissals in eviction cases from CCAP in the future. Following the same reasoning as the CCAP committee did regarding dismissed criminal charges above, one would think that the committee would feel the same regarding the removal of stipulated dismissals in civil cases from CCAP if that issue ever arises..