Available Information

Access to personal identifying information included in municipal court records

At the direction of the Office of the City Attorney, the Milwaukee Municipal Court has removed individual defendant address information from its website.  This direction comes as a result of the decision issued by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Senne v. Vill. of Palatine, 695 F.3d 597, (7th Cir. 2012 en banc, cert. denied, June 24, 2013), and by the United States Supreme Court decision in Maracich v. Spears, 570 U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 2191, 186 L.Ed.2d 275 (2013).  The Senne and Spears decisions held that under the provisions of the Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), 18 U.S.C. §2721, personal information derived from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), including an individual's driver's license number, social security number, address, telephone number, photograph and medical/disability information, is prohibited from disclosure to the public unless one of 14 specific uses apply.  The DPPA preempts any conflicting state law that regulates the dissemination of motor vehicle record information.  Coller v. Dickinson, 477 F.3d 1306, 1312, n. 3 (11th Cir. 2007).

The specific use exceptions to the prohibition to disclosure of personal information under the DPPA are found at 18 U.S.C. §2721(b).  For your assistance, we have provided links to additional information regarding the DPPA as well as a form that may be used by requesters who believe they fit within one of the DPPA exceptions:

• Additional Information:
  http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/drivers/privacy.htm
   
• Vehicle/Driver Record Information Request Form:
  http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/drivers/forms/mv2896.pdf

NOTE:  To receive information from Milwaukee Municipal Court, complete this form and submit to the Milwaukee Municipal Court *not* the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles