Legislative Study Committee Continues
 The Wisconsin Legislative Council's Study Committee on Access to Civil Legal Services is scheduled to hold its next (and possibly final) meeting on November 14 in Madison at the State Capitol. Presentations and minutes from their previous meetings on July 27 and September 14 are available online. We are not certain whether the committee will add another meeting, or whether this will be their final meeting before they begin preparing their report and any recommendations.
Among the initiatives being considered by the committee are an expansion of mediation clinics in substantive areas of the law where self-represented litigants are plentiful; ensuring that civil legal aid is part of all state programs that rely on federal block grants; evaluating the benefits of appointed counsel in civil cases; technologies that will improve access to justice; and studying the economic impact of civil legal aid in Wisconsin.
The 16-member committee includes 6 legislators and 10 public members, including Jim Gramling, President of the Access to Justice Commission. The Study Committee was created in response to a powerful, unanimous request from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The committee's charge is "to review the funding and delivery of legal services for the indigent in civil cases. The committee shall: (1) review the need for legal services by indigent civil litigants; (2) identify additional non-GPR sources of revenue to provide civil legal services for the indigent; and (3) review current operations."
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Legal Action of Wisconsin will receive a 24-month $377,773 
