Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

Re: Court Appointed Lawyers

Due to the low and uncertain compensation which the WI Public Defender system pays to private bar attorneys accepting cases such as your brother's (where there is a conflict with the local public defender's office), there is a shortage of willing attorneys in some parts of the State. This, as well as the large number of poor clients who are not quite poor enough for the Public Defender's guidelines, has lead some counties to create county systems to appoint attorneys outside of the public defender system. The county systems pay nearly double the compensation paid by the Public Defender system for outside attorneys, and attorneys willing to accept these appointments are plentiful. I am not familiar with the alternate appointment system in Marathon County, but I would guess that your brother does not need it, since he was apparently poor enough to qualify for representation under the traditional State Public Defender system. This might explain the Judge's denial of his request. In that system, the Public Defender's office, rather than the Judge, is responsible for appointing new attorneys in conflict situations. It may have been a grave error to fire a staff lawyer form a local Public Defender's office, since they are often among the most knowledgeable and experienced criminal lawyers in any given county. They carry large caseloads and may therefore lack sufficient time for one on one contact and reassurance of clients, leading the occaisional conflicts with clients. This alone does not mean that their cases are neglected--the opposite is generally true.