UPDATE ON AB-340 (CCAP BILL)

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Screening Tenants, CCAP, Rep. Marlin Schneider / Comments

As many of you know a public hearing was held on AB340 - the proposed bill by Rep. Marlin Schneider that would restrict who can use CCAP and what information would be contained on CCAP -- at the State Capitol in Madison last week.

Several board members from the AASEW (Dave Ohrmundt and Richard Bishop) and the head of Milwaukee RING (Brian Fleming) attended the hearing to make sure that landlords' voices were heard.  We appreciate you guys taking the time out of your busy schedules to attend.

A fellow landlord-tenant law blogger from the Wausau area (Dr. Rent a/k/a John Fischer) also attended the public hearing and even testified wrote a recent blog post on the bill and the hearing that gives you his views on the proposed bill and what his thoughts are regarding if it will succeed.  Dr. Rent writes a great blog and if you enjoy my blog you should also sign up for his blog.

Arguments were presented both for and against the propsoed legislation.  On a practical level I thought it was very telling the the director of state courts (who under the proposed bill would be in charge of registering CCAP users and monitoring their searches) felt that the cost and time involved would be a huge undertaking.  It might have been a good idea for the bills' sponsors to have spoken with the director of state courts and attempted to get him on their side prior to the public hearing.

Two recent articles written about the hearing and AB340 in general were published.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote an article on the hearing and the Racine Journal Times also had a good piece on the proposed legislation.  Columnist, Patrick McIlheran, of the Journal Sentinel also wrote a recent piece on Schneider's proposed CCAP bill.

The Wisconsin State Journal also published an editorial regarding AB-340.

I was also interviewed for an article by the Wisconsin Law Journal about the proposed CCAP legislation. This article does not focus on how AB340 will affect landlords but rather how it might affect lawyers ability to screen their own clients and related issues.