Illinois Court Exposes Drivers’ Traffic Records, Class Action Claims

Illinois drivers claim a county clerk’s practice of making unredacted traffic records accessible to the public violates federal driver privacy laws.

Plaintiff Mary Nisi claims that Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Dorothy Brown’s office allows the public to search traffic records via terminals in county courthouses.

She is suing Brown only in her official capacity as County Clerk, as the Clerk is responsible for maintaining the records so that they are available to the public and comply with applicable laws.

She also seeks to hold the rest of Brown’s office accountable — “her agents, assistants, successors, employees, and all persons acting in concert or cooperation with her or at her direction or under her control.”

The purpose of these terminals is allegedly to allow individuals to view and print records for their use, but the systems reportedly expose the information of all people with traffic records, not just the records for the person using the system at a given time.

Allegedly, anyone can obtain another person’s traffic records and personal information buy searching a name or a license plate number.

According to the Illinois clerk’s office class action lawsuit, information like a person’s gender, birthday, driver’s license number, and home address are accessible via the terminals in the courthouses.

Allegedly, these terminals are the only method by which people can access their court documents. E-filing is reportedly mandatory in the district, so many people use the terminals.

According to the class action lawsuit, Brown’s office’s practice of making traffic records available to the public violates the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.

The Act was reportedly passed in 1994 in part as a response to the murder of a young woman whose killer was able to access her unlisted address via state motor vehicle records.

According to Nisi, Dorothy Brown’s office’s practice of making all records available to the public violates this law and endangers individuals’ safety, and exposes them to potential identity theft.

The Cook County class action lawsuit claims that individuals whose records are in the Cook County Circuit Court’s system don’t have a choice if their records are exposed or not, and are “helpless to stop it.”

Allegedly, the violations of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act are systematic and reflect the “official practice and policy of the Clerk’s office.”

Nisi seeks damages on behalf of herself and all other people whose records were exposed to the public via the Circuit Court of Cook County’s terminal system.

She also seeks injunctive relief, which would require the clerk’s office to cease its practice of exposing underrated records to the public and to implement measures to protect the information of the people whose records the court possesses.

This is not the first time that Dorothy Brown’s office has come under fire for an alleged mishandling of records. Brown’s office is under investigation for allegedly withholding certain documents from the public under the guise of “administrative processing.” During litigation of that case, her office was given the chance to implement a system that gave the public immediate access to the documents in question.

Nisi is represented by Roger Zampara Jr. and Steven Uhrich of Zamparo Law Group PC.

The Circuit Court of Cook County Privacy Violation Class Action Lawsuit is Mary Nisi v. Dorothy Brown, Case No. 1:18-cv-04861, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.