To promote justice throughout Wisconsin by providing high-quality and compassionate legal services, protecting individual rights, and advocating as a criminal justice partner for effective defender services and a fair and rational criminal justice system.

      The Office of the State Public Defender (SPD) is an independent state agency charged by Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 977 with providing legal representation to indigent clients in criminal and certain civil cases. Created in 1965 as an appellate program within the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the SPD was transferred to the executive branch in 1977 and its mandate expanded to provide trial court defense services.

      The Public Defender Board, which consists of nine non-partisan members selected by the Governor and confirmed by the State Senate for staggered three-year terms, appoints The State Public Defender to supervise the operation, activities, policies and procedures of the Office of the State Public Defender.

      The SPD has approximately 550 employees deployed in 38 field offices and provides defense services in every Wisconsin county. In addition, approximately 1200 private bar attorneys affiliate with the SPD to provide defense services in conflict and surplus cases.

      The SPD is organized into four divisions--trial, assigned counsel, appellate, and administrative. In addition, the SPD maintains an Office of Legal Counsel, an Office of Training and Development, and a Chief Information Officer.

      The Trial Division has 36 offices located within 13 regions. This Division assigns cases and provides legal representation at the trial level to indigent persons in adult criminal, civil commitment, (including sexually violent persons commitment), probation or parole revocation, contempt of court, and termination of parental rights cases. This Division also represents juveniles who are subject to delinquency, commitment, paternity, children in need of protection, and termination of parental rights proceedings.

      The Assigned Counsel Division (ACD), located in the central administration office in Madison, provides support services to certified private attorneys appointed to SPD cases. The ACD certifies private attorneys for trial level representation, provides training for private attorneys, processes investigator and expert requests for private bar attorneys in SPD cases, and administers all SPD private bar attorney payments. The ACD shares responsibility with the Trial and Appellate Divisions for monitoring private attorney performance.

      The Appellate Division has offices in Madison and Milwaukee that provide post-conviction or post-judgment legal representation to indigent persons at the trial and appellate levels for all Wisconsin counties. This Division certifies private bar attorneys for eligibility to receive appellate level SPD appointments, assigns the conflict or surplus cases to those attorneys, monitors performance, and provides litigation assistance in private bar supreme court cases. The Division also reviews requests for counsel outside the direct appeal process and acts upon attorney complaints from clients or the courts.

      The Administrative Division is responsible for providing staff support services in areas such as budget preparation, fiscal analysis, purchasing, payroll and personnel.

      The SPD provided legal services to approximately 142,400 indigent clients in Fiscal Year 07. SPD staff attorneys represent approximately 52% of those clients. Approximately 40% are assigned to certified private bar attorneys on a rotational basis at an hourly rate of pay, and 7% (misdemeanors only) are assigned to certified private bar attorneys via fixed fee contracts. (The percentages do not total 100% due to rounding.)