The letters CCAP are some of the most important letters in the state of Wisconsin. Consolidated Court Automation Programs (CCAP) gives anyone the ability to look up personal state court records.
It's almost a coming of age story for most of us: Who was the first person you CCAP’d?
We’re looking into the story of CCAP because this week is National Sunshine Week, which promotes the right to public access to government records at all levels. We asked Milwaukee residents how they’ve used CCAP, here’s what they said:
Iris: For a number of years, I used to work at different law firms and at work we would use CCAP on a pretty regular basis for different things... And once I knew about it, I started looking up all different kinds of people in my life just out of curiosity. And there were some surprises. Then, when I was single and dating, I would look up potential dates as part of my vetting process whenever I would meet someone. Soon, I became the person who all my friends would send their potential dates information to and I would look them up.
Shelly: I have found out many interesting things through CCAP, such as one person who was becoming a stalker — [who] actually had a history of restraining orders, and even as crazy as one person that I dated for over a decade on and off, had gotten married in the last couple of years and not shared that with me.
Jeff: Pre-COVID, I was managing a bar on the east side and we had a regular who would come in like clockwork. This was during the first Trump term and this customer regularly brought up race issues and politics that differed from most of the clientele and the staff. After hearing other incidents [with this customer at other bars,] and an incident at my bar, I decided to ban him. I did it politely and before he entered the bar one day. Months later I received a restraining order from him… and now have a restraining order on my CCAP. The situation was taken care of and I no longer look like a creep.
Laurie: I’ve used CCAP to look up myself to see if anyone’s filed anything against me or how my other court cases were going — like speeding tickets. I am in the criminal justice field so I like to know what would possibly show up on my background.
Gabe: I use CCAP as a renter. I own a duplex and I live on the first floor unit. I’m a single woman and I use it to make sure that the people above me aren’t going to provide additional dangers to me. So vetting for violent crimes, DV or things like that.
There are countless ways that Wisconsin residents can use CCAP. It’s also a tool that attorneys use too. Gilbert Malis is an attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and you can often find him working at the organization's monthly Eviction Sealing Clinic, where residents can work with an attorney to get their public record sealed, if they qualify.
The service can save someone a few hundred dollars in court costs, but an untold amount of money in securing safe housing if they can improve their public record.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Jimmy Gutierrez: When people come up to you looking for help, what do you look for when you search their name on CCAP?
Gilbert Malis: We check for eviction records first. If they don't have any eviction records, great, they're either sealed or they didn't have an eviction. Then we look for the case. In an eviction case, we'll look and check the case code. If it's a small claims eviction case then the case is closed. If it's ongoing, they still have court. They still have things they need to do. Legal Aid may be able to help them with that.
I can assist them with filling out the paperwork to request that this eviction be redacted—as to their name. That paperwork says we're going to take your name off of CCAP, so when it's searched, that record doesn't show up.
How do you see CCAP used in eviction processes within landlords and tenants? Is it usually weaponized or utilized?
From my standpoint, I am a tenant defense attorney so I see it from the defendant's side of when they have the eviction filed or what they're trying to do to find new housing. I see it as weaponized.
I know that it is a tool to search records, but that tool is used against a lot of people. When I first started volunteering for eviction defense, when I was in law school, we saw a lot of landlords search CCAP.
In the past six or seven years we've seen a shift where if the eviction has been filed, landlords will say, “Look, we need double security deposit, you're a risk.” Regardless of whether it's granted, whether it was resolved or not. And then lately we've seen that if you have any evictions filed, we will not rent [to] you. It's even on websites for landlords. If you search for applications, it'll say no evictions, no eviction filings.
So we get a lot of people saying, I have these old evictions. They're on my record. They were dismissed. I've had payment plans. I've resolved them, but it's still impacting my ability to find housing. That's when we look at CCAP sealing and redaction.
And how long do things stay on people's records?
If there's a judgment that was granted, they owe some money maybe, that can stay on the record for up to 20 years until it's either paid, waived or discharged. If there's a dismissed eviction, so there's no judgment, no money owed, they weren't evicted, that will only stay on their CCAP record for two years. It used to be 10 but they changed it. We have asked for it to be shorter than two years because even two years can pose a significant barrier to people finding housing.
We're talking about potential housing discrimination, but that's not the only way that CCAP can be used, and has been used to discriminate. It's also affected people looking for work.
There are plenty of cases where when you search on CCAP, it comes up and it says this case has not been concluded. And it says this notice to employers: it may be a violation of state law to discriminate against a job applicant because of an arrest or conviction record.
Landlords still use this. We know that for evictions. And anyone can search CCAP, you don't need a law degree and you don't have to care what's happening with the case. But the fact that there's something on CCAP says that they were sued, they were arrested, potentially there's fines, fees, something with all of that information, they can say, “Well, maybe, maybe we don't want to hire this person.” Even if it's five, 10, 20 years ago, right?
What’s your overall take on CCAP and what should we make of it?
It is very nuanced because CCAP is a tool and tools can be used very well. Without having to go to the courthouse, without having to find records, it makes my job very easy. I get to just sit behind a laptop and when someone comes to me and say, “Hey, I'm looking for help on this.” I can pull it up and get a general understanding of what's going on.
But then when they have personal questions about what happened, what does this document say? I can't review that without going to the courthouse. But when it comes down to someone searching and finding something and making conclusions, making assumptions, it can be weaponized and used against people.
And usually and in my experience, that is used against the poor, underprivileged. It is used against people who, through no fault of their own, have certain circumstances that lead to this, whether it's convictions, whether it's evictions, whether it's even money claims. And with CCAP, you don't get the details of what's actually happening. You make those assumptions, you use it against that person and now it leads to a whole load of issues for them that just continues that cycle.
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