From: Hinrichs, Kristine Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 11:04 AM To: Intergovernmental Cc: Wood, Brenda; Gonda, Jennifer; Dahlberg, Art Subject: RE: AB-340 Relating to: restricting access to and limiting information contained in the Consolidated Court Automation Programs and providing a penalty. The Court has opposed this legislation in the past. The Judges are sensitive to the issue of the potential for the information to be used in a manner that is not intended. For that reason, they did direct Court staff to display only cases on our public site that are less than five years old. They believed that this is an appropriate time period for the types of cases heard here. That time period would, of course, not be appropriate for criminal and other more serious cases. They also directed that we place a disclaimer related to the use of the data on our case search page. The following are other issues that relate to the Court's opposition to this proposal. Concern that such a restriction would later be applied to municipal court web sites - increasing the number of phone calls and other records requests from people who had used the site in the past. We direct employers and government agencies to use our site to reduce staff time dedicated to looking up cases and providing the information. The implementation of a registration requirement would be very costly to us as well. We direct defendants to our web site for information about pending action and to allow them to make on-line payments. The Judges believe that defendants should have easy access to information about their own cases. They have often lost their citation or court notices so do need to be able to search on their own name. Concern that many people confuse us with circuit court and that the number of people who call here for circuit court information would increase. Even though we don't provide the data to them when they call, referring these parties to circuit court or CCAP is fairly time consuming. The Judges have an overall concern that the public does have a right to reasonable access to public records and that people should not have to come to a physical location in order to exercise that right. Kris Kristine Hinrichs Chief Court Administrator Milwaukee Municipal Court 951 North James Lovell Street Milwaukee, WI 53233 414-286-3836 - direct 414-286-3615 fax -----Original Message----- From: Intergovernmental Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 9:07 AM To: Hinrichs, Kristine; Dahlberg, Art Cc: Wood, Brenda; Gonda, Jennifer Subject: AB-340 Relating to: restricting access to and limiting information contained in the Consolidated Court Automation Programs and providing a penalty. http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/AB-340.pdf AB-340 was recently introduced. Please review the proposed legislation for its impact on the City of Milwaukee and respond below by email ('Reply to All') as soon as possible. Please include the following information: Is this germane to the City of Milwaukee? Recommended position: Specific reason for this position: Estimated fiscal cost or revenue: The information you provide will be helpful to the Judiciary and Legislation Committee in formulating the City's position. Thank you.