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Group studying access to civil legal services to meet Wednesday

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//July 26, 2016//

Group studying access to civil legal services to meet Wednesday

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//July 26, 2016//

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Various lawyers, judges, lawmakers and others will get together for the first time Wednesday to discuss ways to pay for legal services and make them otherwise available to Wisconsin residents who can’t afford them.

Their meeting will come as the first for a committee formed in response to a letter the Wisconsin Supreme Court sent in February to the Legislature’s budget committee calling on lawmakers to study barriers to getting legal representation in civil cases. The Supreme Court was asked in 2011 to create a rule recognizing litigants’ right to counsel in civil matters.

The justices declined, citing a lack of money. Another request was made in 2013.

State lawmakers this year approved spending up to $500,000 a year to ensure residents can have legal representation in civil cases. The justices believe, though, that a more comprehensive solution is still needed.

In a 2007 study, the State Bar found that more than 500,000 Wisconsinites were then involved in civil legal matters without the help of a lawyer or other legal professional. Two years later, the Supreme Court began charging lawyers an additional $50 a year to practice in the state.

That money raised now goes to the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation Inc., which helps provide civil legal services. In 2009, the court formed the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission, a 17-member body meant to ensure residents have access to legal counsel in civil cases.

The special committee now studying ways to ensure more people get such representation is scheduled to hear several presentations on Wednesday, starting with one from Jeff Brown, who manages the State Bar of Wisconsin’s pro bono program. Members will also hear from Jim Sandman, president of Legal Services Corp., a non-profit group that specializes in providing equal access to the legal system and provides grants for civil legal aid.

Further remarks are to come from representatives of the American Bar Association’s Resource Center for Justice Initiatives, Disability Rights Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin Law School’s Economic Justice Institute.

The committee’s members include top officials at various civil legal-aid organizations, judges and private attorneys. Among the most noteworthy are Jim Gramling, president of the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission; Supreme Court Justice David Prosser; and Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative group that has fought against lawsuits challenging Gov. Scott Walker’s law stripping public workers of nearly all their union rights.

The committee is also planning to meet Sept. 14 and Oct. 12.

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