Justices to hear public comments on proposed exception to pro hac vice rule

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be hearing public testimony on a change to the pro hac vice rule.

The court’s rule requires out-of-state lawyers who wish to appear in Wisconsin’s courts to submit a pro hac vice application and pay $250 per case. Applicants must make out three separate checks: $100 to the Office of Lawyer Regulation, $100 to the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation Inc. and $50 to the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission.

In July, two attorneys with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Starlyn Tourtillott and Danica Zawieja, filed a rule-change petition asking the court to except from the fee and application attorneys who appear in cases involving the Indian Child Welfare Act and its state counterpart, the Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act.

Tourtillott and Zawieja earlier this year had asked the court, when it was considering an increase to the pro hac vice fee, to create an exception to the pro hac vice rule for lawyers working on Indian Child Welfare Act matters. The justices rejected the proposal petition in March but instructed court staff workers to have Tourtillott and Zawieja file a separate rule-petition dedicated to their request.

The justices voted in September to take up the petition.

The court has received several letters in support of the petition, and the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Governors voted unanimously at its meeting in September to support their petition.

The public hearing will be at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 16 in the Supreme Court Hearing Room in the state Capitol. Follow @erikastrebel