Council proposing changes to appellate record rules

Listen to this article

A group of judges, lawmakers, practitioners and others are asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to adopt various changes to the rules involving the appellate record.

The Judicial Council, an independent body charged with recommending to Supreme Court and state Legislature ways to improve the state’s rules of procedure, filed the petition on May 26. The council’s appellate-procedure committee has been studying the proposed changes since 2014. The review comes in response to requests from the state Department of Justice and a former State Bar president.

The council is proposing changes to the state’s rules governing the procedures used to supplement the record on appeal, as well as those concerning sealed documents, transcripts of certain recordings and pre-sentence investigation reports.

The proposal calls for allowing appellate courts to provide access to pre-sentence investigation reports that are in the record and requiring parties to submit transcripts of deposition recordings 10 days before a proceeding.

The changes, according to the council’s memo, are meant to clarify current rules and improve the court’s efficiency.

The next step will be for the high court to decide in an open meeting whether to hold a public hearing and seek public comment on the petition.