Judge White celebrates diversity, new staff at State of the Court address

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Milwaukee County Chief Judge Maxine White celebrated diversity in the court during her State of the Court address at the Wisconsin Club on Tuesday afternoon.

White said about a third of all county judges who were in office in June 2015 have retired since then, ushering in 16 new appointees over the past four years. Five judges have taken the bench in 2019 alone.

“Our new colleagues have added a lot of diversity in the courtrooms, in experience coming from civil, family, criminal and executive levels,” said White. “Ten of the judges taking the bench since June of 2015 are women, and three of them are minorities.”

The court also welcomed four new family-court commissioners, three judicial commissioners and two deputy probate commissioners. White said the new commissioners also form a diverse group; more than half of them are bilingual. The Milwaukee County courts now have one opening for a judge and one for a commissioner.

White said the judges have received more than 125,000 case filings, sworn in 554 juries and taken 470 verdicts. White said the county’s budget is tight, being about $26 million over what the local property-tax levy will support. A recently approved increase in wages for state-appointed lawyers, taking their hourly rate up from $70 to $100, is expected to cost the county $1.5 million in 2020. The county’s pretrial program is manwhile short about $250,000, but White said she is confident the courts will find the needed money.As

As achievements, White credited herself and her colleagues for adopting e-filing, going paperless with small claims, combining children’s and family cases and intervening in a way that prevented 26 babies from being born addicted to drugs.