State Bar of Wisconsin

State Bar renews call to adequately fund public defenders and prosecutors

Diane Diel, State Bar President

Over 1,000 private attorneys in Wisconsin play a fundamental role in maintaining one of our most important institutions – an honest, fair, and effective criminal justice system – by accepting appointments from the State Public Defender's office (SPD) when there are no staff attorneys available to represent indigent defendants who have a constitutional right to have a lawyer defend their legal rights. Private attorneys accepting SPD appointments were informed this month that the funds needed to pay for these services will run out in April, which means the attorneys will not be paid until the state’s next fiscal year begins on July 1.

This is a troubling development on at least two levels. First, by pushing payment of FY 2009 bills into FY 2010, the state is creating even larger potential shortfalls next year. Second, the compensation rate in question has been frozen at $40 per hour for over a decade, a rate so low that it fails to even cover overhead costs for most private attorneys. This already limits the number of lawyers able to accept SPD appointments and the prospect of lengthy delays in receiving those payments further undercuts the state’s ability to meet its constitutional obligations.

The typical Wisconsin lawyer is a small business owner. In fact, of the approximately 3,700 law firms in Wisconsin, 92 percent (or 3,400) are small businesses with five or fewer lawyers. Fully 70 percent (or 2,580) of those law firms are solo practices consisting of only one lawyer. The small businesses Wisconsin lawyers operate are woven into the fabric of Wisconsin’s economic life. Wisconsin lawyers provide employment, pay taxes and support other businesses statewide.

The urgent need to adequately fund SPD private attorney compensation is further underscored by the fact that county property taxpayers will end up paying for required legal representation – usually at a rate far above the $40 per hour paid by the state – if the SPD is unable to find a lawyer willing to take a case.

This latest development is another red flag that should alert state policy-makers to the need to adequately fund private bar public defenders.

The State Bar offers CLE incentive.

State Bar CLE offers a free seminar to attorneys who sign up for public defender appointments and take five cases. The effort assists the State Public Defender in meeting the ever-increasing need for additional private appointment attorneys.

Attorneys eligible for the program must be new to the private bar appointment list or not have taken a case from the Public Defender's Office in at least two years. To sign up for the program, contact attorney Deborah M. Smith at (608) 261-8856.