Legal Research

The Effect of Furloughs on State Court System

The Wisconsin Law Journal reports that furloughs for more than 570 non-judicial staff of the Wisconsin court system are on the horizon, but how they will be implemented is yet to be determined.

From the article:

On June 23, Gov. Jim Doyle signed an executive order which calls for employees of state agencies and the University of Wisconsin system to take eight days (64 hours) of unpaid leave during each fiscal year of the next biennium...

State court employees are not subject to Doyle's order, noted Radloff, but the budget does cut approximately $1.9 million annually in salaries for non-judicial court staff.

"Basically, the money taken from the budget is the equivalent of the eight days per year," said Radloff, who still expected additional furloughs to be discussed.

Keith Sellen, who oversees the 29 state employees at the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR), said it is hard to estimate to what extent closing the office for the equivalent of almost two weeks throughout the next biennium would have on efficiency.

"Assuming it's eight [days] for the next two years, it will have some impact," Sellen said.

"It may result in some minor delays, but I'm not sure what percentage of time will be lost."

Full post as published by WisBlawg - From the UW Law Library on June 26, 2009 (boomark / email).