Wisconsin Supreme Court Sides With Tenant Advocates Regarding Eviction Records

Wednesday, October 11th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(By Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) The liberal majority of Wisconsin's Supreme Court is siding with tenant advocates who sought to curb public view of someone's prior eviction records.

According to Sarah Lehr with Wisconsin Public Radio, under existing rules, courts are required to keep records from most evictions for twenty years after a case is closed. But under the recently-advanced proposal, evictions records in many instances would be scrubbed from a statewide court website after just two years.

During an open rules conference on Wednesday afternoon, justices voted 4 to 3 to have a court commissioner draft a revised order that includes the agreed-upon changes. Once that order is circulated, a majority of justices will need to sign on to it, so that the changes could take effect in 2025.

Justice Brian Hagedorn joined the other conservatives in voting against. He worried the changes would be burdensome for courts and suggested concerns about housing could be better addressed by the Legislature.

"It just feels very odd to me that we as a court would step in, close access to public records as the response to this issue," Hagedorn said. Wednesday's vote follows a petition from Legal Action of Wisconsin.

The nonprofit asked justices to change Wisconsin court rules so that records from evictions cases without a monetary judgment would need to be kept for only one year. The amended rules advanced Wednesday, however, were suggested by another legal aid group called Judicare.

The rules differ somewhat from Legal Aid's original petition and would set a timeline for retention of two years instead of one.

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