Richard Niess: Pull the plug on the dark business courts | Column

Anyone who doubts that secrecy in government breeds poor public policy should take a look at the Commercial Courts Pilot Project launched by our Wisconsin Supreme Court.

For the past five years, the bill has given large business interests enormous influence over the handling of their cases by our court system, exactly as intended. The business court pilot debuted in 2017 in Waukesha County and Judicial District 8 (encompassing Brown, Marinette, Kewaunee, Oconto, Door, Outagamie and Waupaca counties). It expanded to other districts and, in a surprise move, to Dane County in 2020.

Here’s how it works: The Chief Justice, currently Annette Ziegler, gets recommendations from big business and selects a limited number of commercial court judges. These carefully selected judges then receive out-of-state training from special interests aligned with big business. They follow judicial procedures drafted by lawyers from large companies.

The process largely bypasses voter-controlled and otherwise random judicial assignment of cases. It creates a two-tier judicial system: one controlled by business interests and one for everyone else.

It began in September 2016, when then-Chief Justice Patience Roggensack formed the “Commercial Courts Advisory Committee” to develop a specialized court proposed by big business, for big business. Ignoring the state Supreme Court’s own internal operating procedures designed to promote transparency and diversity of opinion in the appointment of judicial committees, the Chief Justice packed the committee with attorneys representing business interests.

The committee included no consumer or labor advocates, no one representing the views of the public, and no one speaking on behalf of other stakeholders in our circuit court system.

Working privately, the advisory committee soon crafted a petition to establish and control the business court, which it filed with the Supreme Court on October 26, 2016. Less than two weeks later, the court adopted the petition with a vote. from 5-2. no public hearing, no opportunity for public comment, and no public notice that the petition was scheduled for a vote.

Thus, out of the public eye, our Supreme Court quickly and fundamentally changed the democratic structure of our circuit courts for handling big business business litigation, simultaneously downgrading judicial independence and corrupting a cardinal principle that underpins our court system: that everyone should be treated equally when he or she comes before the court.

The commercial court model was imposed on the Dane County circuit court system as of July 2020. The Supreme Court is now considering a petition to extend the pilot program, which is set to expire on June 30, 2022, by others. two years.

The big business takeover of circuit court business litigation was not the first time our Supreme Court showed a penchant for secrecy.

For example, in 2012, a majority of the Supreme Court voted to close administrative rules conferences to the public, reversing a policy of open meetings that had informed Wisconsin voters of important court matters for years. “Sitting here in public and philosophizing,” then-Justice Roggensack said, “is really not the best use of our time.

A more transparent approach might have led to a different outcome in the Business Court pilot project. But it’s not too late to comment on the request to extend the project for another two years. Written comments can be sent to Attorney Laura Brenner at [email protected] and must be received by 4:30 pm on April 8.

This time, transparency can produce a better result: a return to normalcy for our courts.