Chief Judge Needham told the Public Protection and Justice Committee that growing costs for interpreters and a shortage of attorneys willing to take court appointments are creating budget pressure for county courts, and that a statewide judicial needs study will quantify how many judges counties need.

Why it matters: Interpreter and private-attorney costs are charged to counties in many cases, juror pay has not been adjusted locally since 2010, and a proposed increase in appointment pay could shift additional costs to counties. The county board and committee could be asked to respond with budget adjustments or legislative requests.

Needham said the clerk of courts’ interpreter line item is “one of the significant and growing” budget pressures, noting three hearings that required a Punjabi interpreter and others that required Russian, Spanish and, occasionally, Somali. He said the nearest certified Punjabi interpreter the court could find was in Milwaukee and the next was in Texas; in-person appearances would have required airfare and hotel, so the court used Zoom. “We did it by Zoom, which is nightmarish in and of itself when you're trying to do a felony preliminary hearing with an interpreter,” Needham said.

Needham described two related staffing pressures. First, several northern counties have little or no private bar available for court appointments; in some places the local bar association consists of “the judge, the district attorney, and corp counsel,” he said. Second, a committee convened by the state’s chief justice has recommended raising the typical private-appointment rate from $100 to $130 per hour. “If that happens, the counties will have to follow suit,” Needham said, referring to private attorneys who accept court appointments for defendants who do not qualify for a public defender but lack resources to hire counsel.

The judge also flagged juror pay as an item the county may review. Needham said juror pay in the county was $40 per day, set in 2010; he noted that Barron County recently increased juror pay from $50 to $100 per day. He said the county’s director of courts is surveying nearby counties and that the committee should expect a recommendation during next year’s budget process.

Needham described a statewide judicial needs project starting the following week in which “all 270 plus judges in the state will begin a project for identifying judicial need” by accounting for every 10 minutes of work for a month. The time-use data will be analyzed by the National Center for State Courts, and Needham said results should be available next summer and could inform judgeship bills and resource requests.

Committee members asked operational questions. Supervisor Adams asked how the court determines when a defendant cannot speak English; Needham replied, “Yes. And that's all we can rely on,” meaning the court currently relies on the defendant’s indication and existing federal regulations for language access. Needham and other committee members discussed using translated forms for routine matters and noted that some Spanish-language forms already have been prepared for the court by a local interpreter, though certified interpretation is still required for many matters and is the reimbursable option under current rules.

The committee did not take formal action on any of these items; members suggested follow-up steps including monitoring the director of state courts’ survey results, considering whether the county should seek changes to state reimbursement rules, and monitoring the judicial needs study when it is released.

Ending: Committee members asked staff to continue tracking interpreter spending, the private-appointment pay proposal, and juror-compensation comparisons so the board can consider budget or legislative responses if costs rise.