Bucks County to appeal federal jury’s $67M verdict in criminal-records case

Bucks County officials said Wednesday that they plan to appeal a federal jury’s $67 million verdict against the county in a class-action lawsuit.

In a statement, the Bucks County Commissioners called the jury’s verdict “extremely disappointing.”

“Unfortunately, our confidence in the justice system is shaken after yesterday’s verdict,” the statement issued by county spokesperson Larry King said. “Thus, we intend to take all appropriate actions through the legal process to challenge the verdict in this case.”

The jury in Philadelphia on Tuesday found that the county “willfully” violated a state criminal-records statute by acting with reckless disregard or indifference in disseminating protected criminal-history information on its Inmate Lookup Tool from 2011 to June 2013. The panel awarded $1,000 to each of the roughly 67,000 potential members in the class, the approximate number of people who had been booked into the county jail from 1938 to 2013.

“We have always believed — and continue to believe — that the County’s inmate lookup tool did not violate the Pennsylvania Criminal History Record Information Act (“CHRIA”), much less that the County willfully violated that Act,” the statement said.