Online billing: Online bills are being processed within 10 days or less and paper bills within 20 days or less.

Publicizing the work of the committee: Article in the WI Defender outlining what the committee has initiated over the last year; flyer for OLR program

OLR Program: Training was well received. There will be video replays scheduled soon.

Discussion Item:

There was a general discussion of a private bar rate increase and the SPD's budget this fall. Kelli Thompson, Nick Chiarkis and SPD Board Member Nancy Wettersten joined in the conference call. The handouts at the meeting were: Governor's Budget Policies and Guidelines; SPD Budget Issue Summary and Projected Cost to Increase Private Bar Hourly Rate.

A rate increase is the highest priority item in the upcoming budget. The primary features of the proposal will likely be an increase in the rate and indexing the rate to something so that there are automatic increases in the future.

Local SPD offices are having increasing difficulty finding private bar to take cases because of the low hourly rate. The northern part of the state is hardest hit. In Green Bay, 18% of cases appointed to the private bar are being appointed to out of county attorneys. There are travel costs associated with these out of county appointments. Cases get adjourned because attorneys aren't available. The Appellate Division has also experiencing these problems in appointing cases. Judges have complaint about cases being adjourned because of this problem.

Many private bar attorneys are moving towards more federal appointments because they are paid at a higher rate. A significant number of attorneys accepting federal appointments are no longer on the SPD appointment lists or don't take appointments despite remaining on the lists. The private bar surveys done in the past showed the leading cause of leaving the SPD list was the low compensation rate to the private bar. About 45% of private bar attorneys currently on the SPD lists take 0 or 1 case/month.

This is primarily a small business issue. Committee members expressed that as their practice has grown they cannot justify taking as many SPD appointments. They cannot afford to take homicide cases because the number of hours required could kill their practice. Committee members felt that private bar attorneys needed to speak out at local bar associations, Chambers of Commerce, Rotaries and the like about the unfairness of the hourly rate.

Other suggestions were made about how to increase compensation to the private bar. One idea was for a higher hourly rate for experienced attorneys to take serious felony cases, or having separate levels of compensation for different case types. Reimbursing for all travel time, opening and closing files, and completing SPD paperwork including bills were suggested.

The committee asked Deb to inform the committee and private bar of any upcoming public hearings so they can attend.

Other Business:

The Private Bar Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 7th after the main programs at the conference.

Discount and rebate coupons for the conference have been sent out again this year. The coupons reward some who take a lot of cases and offer rebates to other if they take more cases.

Next committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 7th at 12:00 noon at the conference. Meeting adjourned at 1:10 pm.