SCR 68.12

(1) Each branch of circuit court should be staffed by one full-time judicial

assistant.

COMMENT

The trial court system faces ever increasing caseloads and cases of ever increasing complexity. The judge

today must take charge and aggressively manage his or her caseload. To do so the judge needs a full-time judicial

assistant. This staff position will permit each judge to devote more of his or her efforts to the primary judicial task-presiding over and judging lawsuits.

The position of judicial assistant should be in the state service. It will perform for the court the following

work: type opinions, correspondence and decisions and prepare reports, dispositions, memoranda, agendas, jury

instructions, verdict forms, orders and notices; assist with calendar management, including scheduling of court

hearings, trials, conferences, legal appointments, meetings and activities of the judge; hold scheduling conferences;

assist with file and record acquisitions; organize and maintain judge's files and records; post court calendar daily,

update weekly calendar; maintain judge's law library; act as receptionist in answering telephone, handling visitors

and processing mail; requisition office supplies; contact attorneys and parties concerning court dates, appointments

and cancellations; such other work as required by the court. See s. 758.19(h), stats. "The director of state courts

shall establish a description of the qualifications and duties of. . . a judicial assistant. . . ."

Judicial experience and expertise support the long-standing position of the Wisconsin Judicial Conference

that this staff position is vital to a well-functioning court. Where judicial assistants now exist as part the court

staffing, caseloads are much more current and the oldest cases are disposed of with priority consideration.

The citizens of this state have a right to communicate directly with each judge's office during normal work day

hours and get immediate answers to their questions and service on their requests without waiting for return calls

from the judge, court reporters, or court clerk who at the time of the call are working in the courtroom. Scheduling

of cases should take place throughout the day, not just when court is out of session and the person in charge of the

calendar has time to work on case scheduling. Also, judges must be protected from ex parte communications by

having their telephone calls screened by knowledgeable staff.

In some counties, court reporters are still required to do clerical tasks for judges. The creation of this

position statewide would relieve those court reporters of that highly paid clerical duty and allow them to concentrate

on their job-court reporting.

(2) Each branch of circuit court should be staffed by one full-time law clerk.

COMMENT

A law clerk works with and for a judge doing specific legal research of both immediate and future needs.

The law clerk may report to the judge orally or in writing. If in writing, the report may be in memorandum form or

in the form of a decision draft. This staff position should be in the state service and will permit each judge to devote

more of his or her effort to the primary judicial task-presiding over and judging lawsuits. Judicial experience and

expertise support the long-standing position of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the State Bar of Wisconsin that

this position is vital to a well-functioning court.

1

The provisions pertaining to staff in SCR 68.12 were not reviewed as part of the repeal

and recreation of SCR 70.38-70.39. S. Ct. Order 11-03, 2012 WI 25 (issued Mar. 15, 2012, eff.

Mar. 15, 2012).

Clearly, a trial court with research assistance will produce higher quality legal decisions. Higher quality

decisions may decrease the number of appeals. One county already has met the proposed standard and its court

disposes of cases at a much higher rate than other trial courts in the state.

(3) Each circuit judge should appoint a full-time court reporter to serve

primarily in the branch to which the judge was elected or appointed.

COMMENT

Current law provides for each circuit judge to appoint a court reporter for his or her court or branch of

court, s. 751.02, stats. Additionally, where "floating" court reporter positions have been created and assigned to

specific judicial administrative districts, the chief judge or district court administrator assigns the court reporter to

fill in where needed because of illness, vacations, leaves of absence, or backlog problems.

Historically, the court reporter was the only staff directly responsible to the judge and in many cases

assumed a number of clerical and administrative duties for the judge's court. It is wasteful of an important court

resource to have court reporters performing tasks other than taking and transcribing the verbatim record. The court

reporter shall be available to assist in other circuit court branches as assigned by the chief judge or district court

administrator to assure adequate coverage of all reported proceedings.

(4) Each branch of circuit court should be staffed by one full-time or part-time courtroom clerk.

COMMENT

In some counties the workload in the judge's office may require the position of courtroom clerk to be a full-time assignment to the court. In other counties the courtroom clerk may be needed only when the court is in session

and may return to the clerk's office for other duties when court is not in session. In small counties this function may

be performed by the clerk of the circuit court.

(5) Each branch of circuit court should be staffed by one full-time or part-time court aide.

COMMENT

The position of court aide should not be confused with that of the court security officer. The responsibility

of the court aide is to attend to the needs of juries and see that they are secure from contact with the parties,

attorneys or witnesses and free from influence from any source outside the courtroom. Generally, only one aide

should be required to assist and secure a jury. On occasion or when a jury is sequestered, additional aides will be

needed to attend to a jury. The standard is consistent with actual practice, as the courts in most counties currently

have part-time court aide.

SCR 68.13: Responsibilities of director of state courts.

(1) The director of state courts shall maintain a list of significant

construction and remodeling projects affecting court facilities in the state.

(2) The director of state courts shall maintain information pertaining to

court security training for use by counties statewide.

(3) The director of state courts shall maintain a list of resources related to

court security, facility construction, and design.

(4) The director of state courts shall maintain resources to enable

committees to submit court security threat and incident reports to the director's

office as required in SCR 68.05 (4).

(5) The director of state courts shall present to the planning and policy

advisory committee an annual summary of security threats and incidents, training

activities, and courthouse construction and remodeling projects that have resulted

in security improvements.