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A Case Against Expungement
Wisconsin courts currently can order expunction at the time of sentencing for certain convicted cases without offering the same option for cases involving acquittals or dismissals.
The Wisconsin Bar Association petitioned the Court that it makes little sense to allow records to be expunged for certain convicted cases without offering the same option for cases involving acquittals or dismissals.
That petition remains on the Supreme Court's agenda for consideration but with no timetable.
Advocates of open government oppose the change. Expunging a conviction is fine, but expunging the record is a mistake, they say.
"Just because a case is expunged doesn't mean there's no historic or practical value to those records anymore," the open record advocates say. "There may be future occasions where you're going to want to have a record of what happened.
Eliminating the court records isn't in the public's interest and it isn't even automatically in a defendant's best interest, they said.
"The fact is, you can't get away from your past anymore," the advocates said. "If you get your name in the paper because you were arrested … that'll be out on the Internet possibly for the rest of time. The court record should be there to provide more information."
"The court records should also be there in cases where charges were dismissed. The state shouldn't be able to come in and disrupt people's lives with arrests and criminal charges and lose a case because charges never should have been brought to begin with and then make all trace of it disappear off the face of the earth."
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