State Bar of Wisconsin

SPD Private Bar Reimbursement

Overview

The Office of the State Public Defender (SPD) is an independent state agency that provides constitutionally-mandated legal representation to indigent clients in criminal and certain civil cases.

In addition to SPD staff attorneys, the state pays private practice attorneys (“private bar”) who take public defender cases. During the 2006-2007 fiscal year, the Office of the State Public Defender appointed over 142,000 cases to attorneys in Wisconsin; nearly half of the those cases are assigned to private bar attorneys at a rate of pay of $40 per hour.

When the SPD was created as an agency in 1978, the private bar rate was set at $35 per hour for in-court and out-of-court work. If this 1978 rate were indexed for inflation, it would now be over $118 per hour. The Legislature increased the rate slightly in 1992 to $50 for in-court work and $40 for out-of-court work. The 1995 state budget bill cut that rate back to the current rate of $40 per hour and it has remained frozen since then.

These hourly rates are less than the typical attorney’s overhead and well below the market rate. Wisconsin’s long-outdated hourly rates for private practice attorneys who take public defender cases continues to have a number of dire effects. Attorneys leaving the SPD appointment lists have cited the low hourly rate as their primary reason for leaving. The low rate makes it increasingly difficult to find qualified lawyers to take SPD appointments, resulting in delays and postponement of cases.

Our Role

Public defenders play a fundamental role in maintaining one of our most important institutions – an honest, fair and effective criminal justice system.

As the professional association representing lawyers, the State Bar of Wisconsin’s mission is to improve the administration of justice and the delivery of legal services. The State Bar believes that compensation for public defender appointments at a rate that fairly compensates lawyers for their time is a critical step in helping to improve that administration of justice and delivery of legal services.

The State Bar needs your voice in the legislative arena to help advocate for increased SPD private bar rates.

For more information, please contact Adam Korbitz at (800) 444-9404, ext. 6140 or (608) 250-6140. Your action is needed today! Thank you.