Judicial Rotations in Wisconsin-Can You Benefit?
Every August 1st, in Milwaukee County and the other more populated counties where judges have only one type of case to deal with at a time, judges are reassigned to other types of cases to help keep them up to speed on all areas of the law. For example, if a judge has been hearing only juvenile cases for the last year or more, he may transfer to family court or adult criminal court to hear different kinds of cases. If a criminal defendant’s case is on-going at the time of a change in judges, he may get a different judge on his case after August 1. If he doesn’t like the judge assigned to his case, this can be good news. Perhaps the new judge will be a better choice. Of course, if the judge you have is perceived to be better than average, you may be sad to see him or her go. Sometimes there can be some strategy involved at this time of year. Your lawyer can try to speed your case up to get it resolved before the rotation, if you want your judge to be your sentencing judge. However, if you and your attorney think the next judge may be a better choice, there are sometimes ways to drag a case out to take advantage of the upcoming change in judges. If you have a case going on, be sure to discuss with your attorney the implications of the upcoming judicial rotation. If you don’t have a lawyer and you think this issue may affect your case, feel free to contact us at reddinandsinger.com.
