Justices give lawyer-mediators added abilities

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has given its blessing to a proposal that would allow lawyer-mediators to draft certain legal documents in family cases.

The court voted 6-1 to approve the proposal, with Justice Shirley Abrahamson voting in opposition. She said Thursday that the petition’s language needed more tweaking.

The justices’ vote came on the heels of more than two hours of testimony from seven practitioners from across the state.

The court will next work on drafting and issuing an order to make the approval official.

The justices on Thursday also voted to solicit more information about a petition involving a rule change that would let legal work for federally recognized tribes count toward admission to practice law in Wisconsin.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Bowler recently filed a proposal asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to change its admission rules so that in-house tribal attorneys would essentially have reciprocity.

The justices voted to ask for more information from the Stockbridge-Munsee and from the state’s Board of Bar Examiners, which is an 11-member board charged with admitting lawyers to practice in Wisconsin and ensuring that lawyers fulfill their continuing-education requirements. Follow @erikastrebel