Wisconsin judges to receive raises in January

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State Supreme Court Chief Justice Pat Roggensack used her State of the Judiciary Address on Wednesday in part to talk about the pay increases judges can expect to receive in January 2020 and January 2021.

Speaking at the annual Wisconsin Judicial Conference, held in Elkhart Lake on Wednesday, Roggensack said the increases will also raise the per diem reserve for judges who serve as substitutes for sitting justices.

“A meaningful raise in judicial salaries was long overdue,” Roggensack said. “After many, many meetings, we fared well with the Legislature and Gov. Evers in regard to increasing judicial salaries.”

Ongoing judiciary successes

Roggensack also said she’s been trying since she took office to improve the court’s relationship with Wisconsin’s legislative and executive branches. As examples of these endeavors, she cited her work with the State Public Defender’s Office to increase statutory pay rates for contract public defenders, adding 65 new public defender positions and increasing the state Supreme Court’s budget for county courts to $3.6 million

Roggensack also spoke about several ongoing projects. She said eFiling is in the process of moving into the Court of Appeals. She said that although the system has encountered some obstacles, she believes it will ultimately prove as successful as CCAP at the circuit court level.

“I believe that when appellate judges try working with electronic filings, over a period of time, they will find electronically filed briefs and records very beneficial,” said Roggensack. “I have given up working with paper records.”

Pilot projects

The Commercial Docket Pilot Project is meanwhile ongoing in Waukesha County and the 8th Judicial Administrative District. The project allows judges to promptly intervene and resolve business cases. Roggensack said many cases in Wisconsin’s commercial docket are now reaching resolution in less than a year. Before the project, cases on the regular docket often needed as many as 36 months.

Even so, Roggensack said the commercial docket has been under-used so far. She said the business-court team will try to encourage participation by giving a presentation on Commercial Docket Pilot Project at the Wisconsin State Bar’s annual meeting.

Roggensack next turned to the state’s Judicial Engagement Team, which works to reduce the number of children in foster care by providing help to families that are dealing with Wisconsin’s child-welfare system. She said the team is now working in eight counties: Barron, Dane, Jefferson, Kenosha, Marathon, Marinette, Monroe and Oconto.

“Children’s and parents’ voices are heard at each court hearing, which has increased parental understanding and cooperation with the tasks necessary to safely return children to parental care,” Roggensack said.

State courts director

Randy Koschnick, director of state courts, used his appearance at the judicial conference to thank the judges who had testified in October in front of the Joint Committee on Finance in support of a bill that would add additional circuit court branches starting in August 2020. He said the bill is still in committee and that he’s hopeful it will advance in the spring.

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