Wisconsin Eviction Record Sealing — How to Clear It (2026)

✓ Law Verified August 2026

A Wisconsin eviction record can block apartment applications for years — often regardless of how the case actually ended. This guide answers the question directly for Wisconsin: whether a sealing law exists here, exactly how to use it if it does, and the real alternatives if it does not. Verified against official Wisconsin sources as of August 2026.

No Wisconsin Eviction Record Sealing Law Yet — What You Can Still Do

A Wisconsin tenant still has several real options. First, use the general civil motion to seal under Wis.

Stat. 801.21, which applies to any circuit court record including a small claims eviction file — you file a motion to seal or redact in the same eviction case, serve every party, state the authority and reasons for restricting public access, and the judge or court commissioner decides whether to seal the whole record or redact your name; the court may rule on the papers or set a hearing.

Wisconsin publishes statewide form GF-246A, Motion to Seal or Redact Information in the Court Record, and Milwaukee County has eviction-specific versions plus an instruction sheet titled How to Ask to Seal Your Eviction Record without a Hearing. Sealing is realistically available mainly where the case was dismissed; ask the court to waive fees with form CV-410A&B if you cannot afford them.

Second, if the eviction judgment was entered by default because you never got notice or missed the return date, you may be able to move to reopen or vacate it under Wis. Stat. 806.07 — the court can reopen for mistake, excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence, or a void judgment, and the deadline for excusable neglect is 1 year from the judgment.

Third, you can appeal an eviction judgment, but you must file the notice of appeal within 15 days of entry of judgment under Wis. Stat. 799.445, which is far shorter than the normal civil appeal deadline.

Fourth, negotiate with the landlord: ask for a stipulated dismissal, or for a joint motion to seal or redact as part of settling the rent you owe — a landlord who is getting paid will often agree, and courts grant agreed motions more readily.

Be aware that a stipulated dismissal is not treated the same as an outright dismissal for record purposes, so ask for a plain dismissal if you can get it. Fifth, pay and document — file a satisfaction of judgment with the clerk once a money judgment is paid, because an unsatisfied judgment reads far worse to screeners. Sixth, wait out the CCAP clock: under Wis.

Stat. 758.20(2) and Supreme Court Rule 72.01(8) as amended, a dismissed eviction with no docketed money judgment comes off the public CCAP website after 2 years, while a case where a writ of restitution was granted stays up much longer. Removal from CCAP does not destroy the paper file at the courthouse and does not stop a screening company that already bought the data, so pair it with FCRA disputes.

Finally, get free help — Legal Action of Wisconsin, the Tenant Resource Center in Madison, and the Milwaukee Justice Center’s free eviction sealing clinic at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, 901 N. 9th St., Room 400, with motions filed in small claims Room 409.

Why A Wisconsin Eviction Record Follows You — and For How Long

An eviction case becomes a public court record the day it is filed — even if you won, even if it was dismissed, even if you moved out voluntarily before the hearing. Tenant screening companies copy these records in bulk and resell them to landlords, which is how a Wisconsin eviction record from years ago can quietly sink a rental application today.

Under federal reporting rules these records generally stop appearing on screening reports after seven years, but the public court file itself can remain searchable far longer unless it is sealed.

That is why the filing itself, not just the outcome, is what matters — and why sealing laws are spreading state by state. Most landlords never read the court file; they read the one-line summary a screening company sells them. Getting the Wisconsin eviction record sealed, corrected, or accurately described is what changes that one line.

Check Your Wisconsin Eviction Record First

Before filing anything, find out what your Wisconsin eviction record really looks like to a landlord. Search the online case index for the court where the eviction was filed, and request your file from the major tenant screening companies — you are entitled to it.

Tenants are often surprised in both directions: some discover the case they worry about was never reported, others find a case they had forgotten, or one that is not even theirs.

Knowing exactly what appears, and how it is described, tells you whether to pursue sealing, a dispute, or both.

Screening reports are also where errors live. A dismissed case reported as an eviction, an old address matched to the wrong person, or a paid judgment still shown as owing are all fixable — and fixing the report is sometimes faster than any court process in Wisconsin.

Your Federal Rights Against Tenant Screening Companies

Tenant screening companies are consumer reporting agencies under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, so a Wisconsin tenant has the same dispute rights as anyone else.

If you are denied housing, charged a higher rent or deposit, or required a co-signer because of a screening report, the landlord must give you an adverse action notice naming the screening company; you may then request that specific report free of charge within 60 days of the denial, on top of your one free file disclosure every 12 months.

Dispute anything wrong or outdated in writing directly with the screening company and attach proof — for a Wisconsin eviction that usually means the CCAP case detail print-out or a certified copy of the dismissal order, judgment of dismissal, or satisfaction of judgment from the circuit court clerk.

The screening company generally must reinvestigate and respond within 30 days, extended to 45 days if you send additional documents during the initial 30-day window, and it must forward your dispute to whoever supplied the data within 5 business days.

Anything it cannot verify must be deleted or corrected, you can require it to send corrected reports to anyone who pulled your file in the last 6 months (2 years for employment), and you may add a 100-word statement of dispute to your file.

Common winnable errors for Wisconsin renters: a case that was dismissed reported as an eviction judgment, a stipulated dismissal reported as a loss, a mixed file from a same-name CCAP hit, an eviction filing older than 7 years still being reported, and a money judgment reported as unpaid after you filed a satisfaction.

Many tenants also send a separate dispute to each screening company they are likely to be run through, because deleting a record at one company does not fix it at another.

Timing matters more than tenants expect. If you are apartment-hunting right now, start the screening-report disputes today — they run on federal deadlines and cost nothing — while any Wisconsin court process moves in parallel. If the move is months away, that is enough time for most sealing petitions, vacated judgments, or corrected reports to finish before a landlord ever pulls your Wisconsin eviction record.

Worth watching in Wisconsin: No eviction sealing statute has passed, but three things are live.

(1) Supreme Court Order 22-03, decided as 2024 WI 24 on the Legal Action of Wisconsin rule petition, amended SCR 72.01(8) to cut the retention and CCAP display period for eviction cases with no money judgment to 2 years, with a delayed effective date of July 1, 2025; the court rejected the petition’s original 1-year request and refused to adopt automatic name-masking in dismissed cases. (2) Wis.

Stat. 758.20(2) sets the floor: the director of state courts may not pull a dismissed eviction with no docketed money judgment off CCAP for at least 2 years, and may not pull a case where a writ of restitution was granted for at least 10 years.

(3) 2025 Assembly Bill 1134, relating to information on the CCAP internet site about dismissed eviction actions, would repeal 758.20(2)(b) and create 758.20(2m); it was still pending as of the 2025-2026 session and has not become law, so do not rely on it.

Related pending 2025-2026 eviction bills include AB 1137 on nonpayment evictions, AB 1138 on stipulated judgments of dismissal, AB 1135 on the waiver defense, and AB 1140 on extrajudicial eviction.

County-level: Milwaukee County runs the only established eviction-sealing program in the state through the Milwaukee Justice Center’s free clinic, with its own Notice of Motion and Motion to Seal or Redact Eviction Record, Declaration in Support, Plaintiff’s Response, and proposed Order forms, plus a separate stipulation and order to seal an eviction record while the parties participate in mediation through the Milwaukee eviction diversion and Rental Housing Resource Center programs.

Tenants outside Milwaukee County generally must adapt statewide form GF-246A themselves and check local circuit court practice, since no other county is confirmed to run a comparable program.

Official Wisconsin Sources & Resources

• Wisconsin Courts Self-Help: wicourts.gov/services/public/selfhelp/smallclaims.htm
• Wisconsin Statute: docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/704
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: hud.gov
• Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex

Taking Control of Your Wisconsin Eviction Record

A Wisconsin eviction record is not a life sentence — it is a document, and documents can be sealed, corrected, or accurately explained. The tenants who struggle longest are usually the ones who never look at what their Wisconsin eviction record actually says, so start by pulling the court file and your screening reports.

Whether Wisconsin offers sealing or only the federal dispute route, acting on the Wisconsin eviction record beats hoping landlords will not check — they almost always do. A short, honest cover letter to a prospective landlord explaining the circumstances can also do real work while the record process runs.

This Wisconsin eviction record guide was last verified against official sources in August 2026. Sealing laws are changing fast — new states pass them every year, so re-check before relying on this page.

More Wisconsin Tenant Rights Guides

• Wisconsin Tenant Rights
• Wisconsin Eviction Process
• Wisconsin Security Deposit Law
• Wisconsin Rent Increase Laws
• Wisconsin Repairs & Habitability
• Breaking a Lease in Wisconsin
• Eviction Timeline Calculator
• All 50 States

Disclaimer: This guide is informational only and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant laws change and vary by city and county within a state. Verify current rules with your state, your local court, or a free legal-aid office before acting. If you are facing eviction, contact a local tenant attorney or legal-aid organization right away.