Court launches site with appeal

Listen to this article

Attorneys can use the court system’s Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Access (WSCCA) Web site to track appellate cases as they move through the system. Visit the Web site.

The Wisconsin court system has just made it easier for lawyers to keep track of the appellate cases moving through the system. Following a hiatus, the courts relaunched a Web site allowing people to search for appellate cases and keep track of key elements of the case.

Director of State Courts John Voelker noted that the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Access (WSCCA) Web site is very similar in appearance and function to the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access (WCCA) Web site, which carries information about cases in the trial courts. The new WSCCA site is located at http://wscca.wicourts.gov/index.xsl.

Someone who searches by name would be able to find the appeal number, the case’s location in the system, the type of case, the appellate district, the circuit case numbers, the parties, and the case history. It will indicate when an opinion was filed and provides a hyperlink to the text of the opinion.

“Welcome to the 21st century,” Voelker said.

He note that the court had a Web site with search capabilities, using the old case management system for the Supreme Court and court of appeals. Throughout the last nine months, his department completely rewrote the appellate courts’ case management system and updated it.

“This was out there before, then it went on hiatus because we were rebuilding their case management system. Now that the new system is in place, the new search feature is up,” Voelker said.

He anticipates lawyers will be pleased by the ability to keep track online of cases moving through the appellate process. The new system went live the last week of January. Those familiar with the circuit court’s WCCA Web site will find the features very similar.

Speaking of the WCCA Web site, Voelker has had a committee reviewing how information is presented on that site and how long it remains available. The committee, which started reviewing the WCCA site back in August, will hold its last meeting on March 3 where it is expected to vote on each of the potential recommendations it will forward to Voelker.

The committee, which was made up of members of the court, law enforcement, legislators and the media, looked at a variety of issues including: the type of information available on the Web site; how that information was presented; and how long it should remain available.

“I will look at those recommendations and decide what we are moving forward on,” Voelker explained.

The group will meet from approximately 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., March 3, at the Grand Army Room on the fourth floor of the Capitol Building in Madison.

Finally, for lawyers who bookmarked the court’s Web site back when it was www.courts.state.wi.us, you might have noticed that your links are no longer working.

About one year ago, the courts began using www.wicourts.gov as the primary Web URL, but they continued running the old URL in parallel. That has changed and those who are still using the old URL will have problems reaching the state courts site.

Tony Anderson can be reached by email.