ATJ commission asking high court to increase pro hac vice application fee

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A body that works to ensure poorer Wisconsin residents have access to the civil-justice system is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to help it continue to operate.

The Access to Justice Commission is a 17-person body established by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2009. The commission’s work has ranged from supporting a rule change to let unclaimed money from class-action lawsuits be used for civil legal aid, to participating on a Legislative committee that studied civil legal services in the summer and produced legislation.

Its operations had been paid for by a $300,000 State Bar reserve fund that was supposed to last three years. But with the last of the $300,000 being used up by July 1, the commission is facing a budget shortfall.

The fund was expected to go dry in June 2015, but the commission was able to make it last longer with the help of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the bar. Now, though, the money will run out on July 1 if something isn’t done to prevent that from happening.

So the commission filed a petition in September with the court to increase the pro hac vice application fee by $50, to a total of $300, $100 of which would go to the commission. It faces a deficit of between $11,000 and $20,000 this year, according to the memo it filed.

Jim Gramling, commission president, noted that part of the difficulty in finding other sources of support is that the commission will not take money from entities such as law firms or WisTAF, which provides grants for indigent client service providers.

“We continue to follow the principle that we are not going to compete with legal aid providers, so that limits the resources we can go to,” Gramling said.

The money the commission hopes to collect from increased fees would let it perform its central mission as a non-profit. Specifically, the money would let the group’s board meet quarterly, hold meetings around the state to attract interest in providing civil legal aid and maintain Wisconsin Free Legal Answers, a system that can be used to ask legal questions online.

“We’re hopeful that the court will agree and take action on the petition expeditiously,” Gramling said.

The Access to Justice Commission has received support from various sources over the years. In 2014, state Supreme Court justices approved a request the commission made jointly with the Office of Lawyer Regulation to increase the pro hac vice application fee from $50 to $200 dollars. The fee, which is collected by the OLR, is paid by out-of-state lawyers who wish to temporarily practice in Wisconsin courts but are not licensed in Wisconsin. Previously, all pro hac vice application money went to the OLR.

Of that $250 fee, the OLR and the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation each receive $100. The remaining $50 goes to the ATJ commission, which nets $30,000 on average, money that goes to its operations.

“That obviously played a big part in our ability to stretch the bar’s initial funding further,” said Gramling.

Also, starting last year, the Bar committed to contributing $20,000 a year for five years. The Bar’s Family Law Section, for its part, has contributed $5,000 for the last two years.

On the other hand, the state Legislature has not set aside money for the commission in the state’s past four biennial budgets. But the budget that recently passed contained money for civil legal aid for domestic-abuse victims – something the commission helped bring about. Follow @erikastrebel