SPD proposing tuition reimbursement for private bar

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The Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office is asking for the establishment of a tuition-reimbursement program for private bar attorneys who take cases for the agency.

The SPD is asking for $500,000 over two years for the program, according to a budget request it filed Thursday. The proposal calls for something similar to the two tuition-reimbursement programs the state has for doctors.

The SPD has recommended limiting its proposed tuition-reimbursement program to attorneys who are licensed to practice in Wisconsin and have a practice in a county with fewer than 25,000 residents, according to the budget request. Other suggestions have called for providing as much as $20,000 a year to lawyers if they accept at least 50 appointments a year and remain in a particular county.

The program is meant to encourage private bar attorneys to take cases in rural parts of the state, said Randy Kraft, an SPD spokesman.

The SPD’s request for a tuition-reimbursement program is being accompanied by yet another call to increase the private bar rate. The agency is proposing a tiered system that will increase the rate to up to $60 an hour. Such a change would cost the state about $7.5 million.

The current rate is $40 an hour for casework and $25 an hour for travel. Those amounts are far exceeded by the pay found at other levels of government. Private attorneys who handle felony cases in federal district courts, for example, get $129 an hour.

The requests are just a starting point in the state’s budget process. Gov. Scott Walker is unlikely to release his own budget proposals until early next year.

The process will then move to the state Legislature. Lawmakers’ goal is usually to have the budget ready for the governor’s signature by the summer.

When Wisconsin lawmakers were working on the state’s current budget, the SPD had asked for a system of tiered increases that would have taken the private bar rate to $60 an hour, as well as increased reimbursement rates for overhead and travel.

“Based on the feedback we heard (last biennium), people were receptive to the tiered rate we’re proposing,” said Kraft. “That’s why we’re solely focusing on that.”

The SPD is also asking for $13.5 million to keep up with statutory caseload requirements and $1 million for transcript, discovery and interpreter fees. Follow @erikastrebel