Class Action Lawsuit Against Mugshot Websites

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H.B. 6 132nd General Assembly (As Passed by the General Assembly)

Reps. Barnes, Manning, Rezabek, Cupp, Kent, Rogers, Anielski, Arndt, Craig, Dever, DeVitis, Duffey, Fedor, Gavarone, Ginter, Green, Householder, Howse, Ingram, Landis, McColley, Miller, O’Brien, Patmon, Patterson, Patton, Perales, Ramos, Reece, Reineke, Schaffer, Scherer, Seitz, R. Smith, Sprague, West, Young Sens. Coley, Eklund, Bacon, Balderson, Beagle, Brown, Dolan, Hackett, Hite, Hoagland, Huffman, Jordan, Kunze, LaRose, Lehner, Manning, O’Brien, Oelslager, Schiavoni, Skindell, Sykes, Tavares, Terhar, Thomas, Uecker, Wilson

Effective date: January 18, 2018

• ACT SUMMARY
  •  Prohibits a person engaged in publishing or disseminating criminal record
    information from soliciting or accepting payment in exchange for removing,
    correcting, modifying, or refraining from publishing or disseminating the
    information.
  • Makes a violation of the prohibition a first-degree misdemeanor.
  • Allows a victim who sues for a violation of the prohibition to be awarded specified damages, in addition to attorney’s fees, costs, and other remedies.
• CONTENT AND OPERATION
  Creation of criminal offense
  The act creates the offense of “misuse of criminal record information.” The act
  prohibits a person engaged in publishing or otherwise disseminating criminal record
  information in print or electronic form from negligently soliciting or accepting from a
  subject individual the payment of a fee or other consideration to remove, correct,
  modify, or refrain from publishing or disseminating criminal record information.1 A
  “subject individual” is an individual who was arrested and had the individual’s
  photograph was taken by a law enforcement agency during the processing of the arrest.
• “Criminal record information” means any of the following:
  

   A photograph of the subject individual taken in Ohio by an arresting law
  enforcement agency (i.e., a booking photograph);
   The subject individual’s name;
   The subject individual’s address;
   The charges filed against the subject individual;
   A description of the subject individual who is asserted or implied to have
  engaged in illegal conduct.Criminal penalty for violation

• The act makes misuse of criminal record information a first-degree misdemeanor.
  Each payment solicited or accepted in violation of the prohibition is a separate
  violation.
• Civil action for damages
  

  Continuing law allows an individual injured by a criminal act to sue for
  damages. Under the act, in such a lawsuit for a violation of the act’s criminal
  prohibition described above, the individual may be awarded the greater of $10,000 or
  actual and punitive damages. The individual also may be awarded reasonable
  attorney’s fees, court costs, and any other remedies provided by law. Under the act,
  humiliation or embarrassment is adequate to show that the individual has incurred
  damages. The individual does not need to prove a physical manifestation of humiliation
  or embarrassment to show damages.