Restricting access to and limiting information contained in the Consolidated Court Automation Programs and providing a penalty. (FE)

eviction proceedings; and domestic violence and other restraining orders and injunctions.

The information on CCAP is available for free on an Internet site. The Internet site has no limitations on who has access to the information, although information in certain types of cases is not available to the public. CCAP allows a user to search for all civil and criminal cases in which a person or entity, who is the subject of the search, has been a party.

Currently, the initial CCAP Web page for each criminal and traffic or other civil forfeiture case contains the following statements: 1) for each criminal and traffic or other civil forfeiture case, a statement that employers may not discriminate against persons because of arrest and conviction records, except in certain circumstances; 2) for each criminal and traffic or other civil forfeiture case that did not result in a conviction or forfeiture, a statement that the charges were not proven and have no legal effect, and that the defendant is presumed innocent; and 3) for each traffic or other civil forfeiture case in which a forfeiture but no criminal conviction was imposed, a statement that the charge or charges in the case are not criminal offenses.

Under this bill, the director of state courts maintains a database that is accessible to the general public on the CCAP Internet site and that provides case information only after a court has done one of the following: 1) makes a finding that a person is guilty of a criminal charge; 2) makes a finding that a person is liable in a civil matter; 3) orders a person to be evicted; or 4) issues a restraining order or injunction against the person.

Under the bill, the director of state courts maintains a separate database that contains public records of circuit courts and that is accessible on the CCAP Internet site to judges, court commissioners, and other court or state and local agency employees, law enforcement officers and employees of law enforcement agencies, lawyers, journalists, licensed debt collectors, employees or agents of financial institutions, realtors and certain other people involved in the sale of real estate or in mortgage or other lending, and landlords.

Under the bill, the director of state courts removes from the database that is accessible to the general public on the CCAP Internet site all information relating to a case if a finding or order related to the case or charge is reopened, vacated, set aside, or overturned on appeal.

Under the bill, if a user searches for a person's name on the CCAP Internet site and subsequently denies the person employment, housing, or another public accommodation, the user must inform the person that he or she searched for the person's record on the CCAP Internet site. A user who fails to do so may be fined $1,000.

Also under the bill, upon the written request of a person whose case information is currently available on the CCAP Internet site, the director of state courts must remove from the database that is accessible on the CCAP Internet site to the general public any information relating to a case if there was no finding of criminal guilt or civil liability, order of eviction, or issuance of a restraining order against the person or if the finding or order was subsequently reopened, vacated, set aside, or overturned.