Brown County Courthouse (Image: Courtesy of Brown County Clerk of Courts)
BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A recent study from the Wisconsin Supreme Court that showed 30 additional judges were needed statewide. It said Brown County needed five of those 30.
However, officials say the entire court system needs extra hands.
“The fact is that the positions throughout the entire system, whether that’s judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the system is overworked here in Brown County,” said David Lasee, Brown County District Attorney.
County Executive Troy Streckenbach said the county has a backlog of 2,800 felony cases.
That’s weighing on top of judges, but also the District Attorney and State Public Defender’s offices.
“So, we have positions allocated for 80% of our need. We’ve been unable to fill some of those positions because of a lack of attorneys generally statewide. When we are fully staffed, we would be staffed to about 80% of our need,” said Lasee.
The State Public Defenders office said it’s unable to make a true apples-to-apples comparison. However, it was able to provide a number based on data from 2023-2025.
“When we applied the DA funding formula to our cases, it showed that we have just 62% of the attorneys we need statewide. So, that’s pretty staggering,” said Harm Venhuizen, Wisconsin State Public Defenders Government and Public Affairs Specialist.
Whether it’s a prosecutor or a defense attorney, they need support staff. Venhuizen says the public defenders are short there too.
“We have 34% of what we would need to support the attorneys that would get us to 100%. And that’s a huge problem for us,” said Venhuizen.
“Of course, there’s an additional staffing cost. But I think that’s a worthwhile cost to ensure that we are managing the justice system efficiently and effectively for everyone,” said Lasee.
The Public Defenders office says it’s working on its budget for next biennium now.
“They’re looking at a pretty massive request for support staff. It would be over 150 positions between attorneys and support staff,” said Venhuizen.
However, allocating the funding for those positions will be up to the next state legislature. The state legislature’s next session will begin on Jan. 4, 2027.
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