03/15/2021
I've toyed with the idea of doing a podcast. If I did that, I have a topic on which I could talk for ages.
Most people are aware of how much information is out there about you.. My podcast episode would focus on how bad, how incomplete or just how flat out wrong that information can be based on simple little things over time.
Case in point; I just got done with a thirty minute call with a woman who lives about 80 miles away in a small county. She needs an evaluation based on a DUI arrest 35 years ago, and she insisted the local court couldn't find it.
Very long story short; "Debbie" (not her real name, but you'll get my point soon) has a legal history in that one small county under the first names of "Debbie", "Debby", "Debby L." and "D.L." , not to mention her maiden name and the surnames from her marriages. About ten different entries, none of which would automatically be paired up in any court record system of which I am aware.
Last week, it was a similar story involving a man with an unusual first name and a last name that would be challenging for the ethnically impaired; in his case, "Hiram Ciccarelli" (not his real name, but you get the idea by now) was listed just in one county as "Hyram Ciccarelli", Hiram Cicarelli", and so on.
For some people, having some things you did "disappear" from your record may not seem to be a bad thing, but "Debbie" from up above lost her drivers license because she was accused of deliberately hiding her history.
And Heaven help those of us with ancestry from Latin America or anywhere in continental Europe, especially south of the Alps or east of the Rhine. It was bad enough in school that my last name drew stares, eyeblinks and imaginary syllables; even the Illinois DMV office refers to me routinely as "Gutkowski", even though I have been submitting documentation to them directly for about 20 years. That can be annoying, but it is far worse for those of us whose name just happens to be similar to someone with a far from ideal legal history, or someone who has a bench warrant, Those traffic stops at 1:00 AM take on a whole different level if your name pops up on some screen as having missed a court date, or you're wanted in someone's courtroom for (usually) unspecified reasons.
