Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Ziegler addresses the Wisconsin Judicial Conference Wednesday. (Screenshot | WisEye)

A shortage of lawyers hampers access to the courts, especially for rural Wisconsin residents, the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s chief justice told a gathering of state judges Wednesday.

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler said that Wisconsin’s chief judges had urged her and the state’s court system to take action in response to a general shortage of attorneys — a problem that other states also experience.

The shortage “is particularly acute in our rural counties, where we often do not even have any available certified attorneys to take cases,” Ziegler said. “When we cannot provide members of the public, who are exercising their constitutional right to be represented by counsel, with an attorney, ‘access to justice’ is seriously compromised.”

Ziegler’s State of the Judiciary Address was delivered at the annual conference of Wisconsin judges and also broadcast on Wisconsin Eye. The conference runs through Friday.

Ziegler established an attorney recruitment and retention committee “to brainstorm potential solutions” to the shortage. The committee works with the state’s chief judges’ committee, the State Bar of Wisconsin and the deans of law schools at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University.

The committee has examined trends contributing to the lawyer shortage in rural areas and looked at other states’ responses, she said. The group has also discussed trends in law school enrollment and in the places law school graduates choose to work.

“Because most attorneys in Wisconsin are concentrated in urban metropolitan centers, there are legal deserts in many areas of the state, particularly in the northern counties,” Ziegler said.

Ziegler said the state bar association is undertaking a pilot project to create more rural clerkships — positions assisting judges that can provide entry-level opportunities for new law school graduates.

In the coming months the committee plans to look at recruitment and retention for public attorneys, she added, including efforts in other states to provide incentive programs to draw new lawyers to rural and underserved communities.

The lawyer shortage was one of three topics Ziegler highlighted in her address, which lasted just under 30 minutes.

Ziegler praised Wisconsin lawmakers who worked across party lines to pass three bills earlier this year aimed at improving security for judges — a concern arising from “dangerous acts of violence and threats against judicial officers,” she said. She recited a list of incidents from around the country, including the 2022 killing of retired Judge John Roemer by a man whom Roemer had sentenced to prison in 2005. The assailant died of a gunshot that investigators said was self-inflicted.

The laws include: Act 234, outlawing picketing or parading at the home of a judge “with the intent to interfere with, obstruct, or impede the administration of justice”; Act 236, which keeps judges’ security information and emergency response plans from public access; and Act 235, which takes effect April 1, 2025, protecting other information about judges, including the identities of  their immediate family members.

While praising the enactment of those laws, Ziegler said that there was “more work to do on this front,” but did not describe specifics.

Ziegler also lauded steps taken to address how the courts and the justice system approach mental health, including creating dedicated mental health courts in four counties.

The state court system is also testing other tools to help the courts deal with mental health matters. Those include pairing judges and psychiatrists to train the judiciary on mental health disorders and treatment best practices, she said, as well as possibly creating a state-level post in the court system to coordinate mental health responses.