This committee was instrumental in the development of a comprehensive policy that addresses electronic access to circuit court records.
The committee is being reconvened to review and possibly modify this policy based on feedback received in the intervening years about the information available on the WCCA Web site.
In 2006, changes were made to the system that included a glossary of legal terms, a caution to employers regarding job discrimination, a decrease in the amount of time certain records remain public and an executive summary page.
Wisconsin case law has said that even if the information may be harmful to an individual's reputation or privacy, that is not sufficient to allow a judge to seal a court record.
Privacy advocate and Wisconsin State Assembly Representative Marlin Schneider, who is on the CCAP Oversight Committee, has said: This easy access to information via computer constitutes a serious threat to individuals' reputations, job applications, housing and even getting a date.
Others argue that it does make identity theft easier because it contains information on gender, race, and birth date, which are not included in a phonebook.