Hertz, a major car rental service accuses thousands of customers of car theft, every year. Many of these accusations have been wrong and more than 200 people have alleged that they have been wrongly arrested. They have filed lawsuits for embarrassment as well as emotional distress. The company has filed for bankruptcy. A Delaware bankruptcy court judge has therefore ordered the company to release the data to the public. Earlier, this data was sealed.

A CBS News investigation had reported that customers have been falsely arrested. So, the legal team of the outlet filed a formal objection to the attempt by Hertz to keep its theft reports and other statistics under seal, as they declared bankruptcy in 2020. Now, in February 2022 these reports will be made public, according to the judge’s decision, on Wednesday.

The judge’s order will ensure that the car rental company discloses the number of erroneous complaints made by them which is at the heart of the lawsuits brought about by people who alleged that were wrongfully arrested. Some of them were even put in jail due to vehicle theft complaints against them.

The company is facing 230 claims in bankruptcy court by people who alleged that they have been wrongly arrested for stealing rental cars. The number of false arrests due to errors have not been revealed by the company but is included in the order by the judge.

Hertz downplayed the data and told the outlet in a statement that only 0.014 percent fall into the category of reporting as thefts to the authorities and this was done after the company made “exhaustive attempts to reach the customer.” The veracity of this percentage can be verified after the data will be made public.

Bloomberg reported that Hertz had filed almost 8.000 theft reports annually during a certain four-year period. Since the files are not as yet in the public domain, the number of auto thefts among these report remains unknown, as yet.