Statutory Interpretation

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WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. A.L.,

Case No.: 2016AP880

Officials: Brennan, P.J., Brash and Dugan, JJ.

Focus: Statutory Interpretation

We granted the State’s petition for leave to appeal a nonfinal order of the trial court in which it denied the State’s request for a reevaluation of a juvenile’s competency in a suspended delinquency matter. The trial court determined that WIS. STAT. § 938.30(5)(d) did not permit such reevaluation; instead, the trial court concluded that a juvenile delinquency petition remains suspended in cases where, as here, the juvenile was found incompetent and unlikely to regain competency within the statutory time frame.

Upon review, we find that WIS. STAT. § 938.30(5)(d) is ambiguous. In our interpretation of the statute, we find that the legislature did not intend for the trial court to lose competency over the suspended juvenile proceedings under these circumstances. Consequently, we find no inferred requirement that the suspended petition be dismissed with prejudice, as suggested by A.L.

In the following opinion, we address the narrow issue of whether WIS. STAT. § 938.30(5)(d) permits the possibility of re-evaluation of competence. We conclude that the statute does permit re-evaluation under the circumstances described in this case. We therefore reverse and remand this matter to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this decision.

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