Money for Mugshots?… Are you paying or giving? On December 19, 2013, The Daily Report published an article that Governor Deal’s Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform unanimously voted Wednesday to support creating a private cause of action for citizens so they can sue reporting agencies and other private companies that publish incorrect or sealed criminal histories. This means that rehabilitated convicted criminal defendants can sue if private companies report inaccurate criminal histories or mugshot information on the internet. Georgia law already makes it a crime to commit such practices but without being able to sue the companies as an individual such laws are just unenforced paper tigers. This proposal would allow the free market to regulate such practices instead of imposing yet another unfunded mandate on state and local prosecuting agencies.
-Author: George C. Creal Jr.