State Bar of Wisconsin swears in new President, WisDOJ budget, cybersecurity, and public defender and ADA salaries discussed

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By Steve Schuster

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Wednesday the State Bar of Wisconsin kicked off its annual meeting and conference at The Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

New State Bar President Dean Dietrich was sworn in Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day at a Board of Governors’ Awards Luncheon, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack spoke. During her speech she was critical of the news media coverage of Supreme Court cases.

Roggensack did not seek reelection which led to the hotly contested Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Dan Kelly and Janet Protasiewicz.

After Wednesday’s luncheon, a Board of Governors’ Meeting was held and Director of State Courts Judge Randy Koschnick spoke on a number of topics including, District Attorney and Public Defender salaries, Wisconsin Department of Justice’s crime labs budget, and cybersecurity.

As previously reported by The Wisconsin Law Journal, the Wisconsin Supreme Court appointed Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick as the new state courts director back in 2017.

On Wednesday, Judge Koschnick said Wisconsin’s Criminal Justice Coalition put together a budget request to the Governor’s office and the Wisconsin Legislature advocating for a pay increase for Public Defender and Assistant District Attorney salaries.

The Criminal Justice Coalition is a collaboration of the State Public Defender’s Office, Wisconsin District Attorney’s Association, Association of State Prosecutors, Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) and the State Court’s Office.

As previously reported by The Wisconsin Law Journal in March, Wisconsin is on the brink of a constitutional crisis, as courts face unprecedented District Attorney and Public Defender shortages across the state.

On Wednesday, Judge Koschnick said the Coalition’s unified message was that Wisconsin needs these resources (increase in salary for Assistant District Attorney’s and Public Defender’s) to keep Wisconsin’s criminal justice system functioning properly.

Key aspects of Wisconsin’s criminal justice system are at issue with the pay increase, including protecting individual rights and prosecuting criminal cases.

Judge Koschnick said he was pleased by the results of the Joint Finance Committee hearing when approved increasing ADA and public defender pay, noting that Democrats proposed an increase and Republicans proposed a slightly higher increase.

“So (Democrats and Republicans) were like trying to out do each other …. The motion passed unanimously,” Judge Koschnick said.

Judge Koschnick then spoke favorably about an increase in the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s budget, noting that “it’s a pain point in the system. You can’t get alcohol or drug tests on blood samples … from the crime lab (timely). It can really delay a case, and so we are hoping … for increased resources for those labs to help take care of that bottleneck problem which needs to be addressed. I would appreciate your help in continuing to help that cause and necessity of getting that item fully funded.”

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, officials also gathered May 1, 2023 at the Wisconsin Statewide Intelligence Center in the greater Madison area to educate the public on the work the agency does and to make a case for an increase in the state’s budget to hire additional agents and analysts.

Also as previously reported, Fond Du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney, the president of the Wisconsin District Attorney’s Association, supported Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul’s proposal to increase funds for the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s budget, during a press conference earlier this month.

“From a prosecutor’s perspective, we would love to see additional resources to our state crime labs especially when we talk about the toxicology and we look at drunk driving as an increasing concern here in Wisconsin. We normally get ethanol results back relatively in short order, but when looking at those drug panels it does take longer and we would love to see additional toxicologists that can help drive down that turnaround time for the drunk driving cases, whether it be fentanyl, marijuana, cocaine, metabolites, prosecutors would greatly benefit from that as well as law enforcement,” Toney said, noting that “crime labs help us secure justice and they also help vindicate the innocent.”

Other topics discussed by Judge Koschnick on Wednesday included cybersecurity and physical security of jurists.

Judge Koschnick urged the need for enhanced cybersecurity noting that the Wisconsin Courts and hospitals have been no stranger to cyberattacks, as previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal.

“You’ve got people in the ICU and the doctors can’t access the computer database until the ransom is paid. It’s a terrible situation,” Judge Koschnick said.

“The Court system has been attacked several times,” Judge Koschnick added, noting that fortunately hackers who targeted Wisconsin Courts have not been successful with ransomware attempts. However, the attacks have resulted in the computer systems being shutdown to the public for short periods of time.

“We have to keep all of the judges and clerks computers running in the courthouse … but shutoff access to the outside world,” he added.

The Judge also discussed of keeping jurists safe.

Only 31 minutes into the Board of Governers’ meeting, a motion passed to move into closed session after the judge’s speech concluded.

A number of CLE sessions were held Wednesday, including: document management and retention, winning the war on talent, and Cybersecurity for law firms.

The Milwaukee Annual Meeting and Conference will close on Friday, June 16 at 12:30 p.m.