GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Brown County's presiding judge says a statewide shortage of judges is delaying cases and exhausting court workers. She says there's a "profound need" for additional resources in Wisconsin's criminal justice system.
Presiding Judge Tammy Hock spoke out following a judicial needs assessment study conducted in October that found Brown County needs five more judges to balance its workload. The county ranks third worst in the state for judicial workload, according to the report.
"The whole process has started to take longer," Hock noted. She says the shortage makes it difficult to give each case the attention it deserves.
"The one thing we want to do is when people are in court, give them their day in court, and it feels like we're cutting into that constantly," Hock said.
While the study identified a need for five additional judges in Brown County, Hock is tempering her expectations for what the state legislature will approve.
"I hope they allocate us two," said Hock, who furthered that two judges would bring Brown County's total up to 10, easing the burden of the case workload.
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Hock has served in Brown County for 14 years, and says that while the need is not entirely new, it's growing.
An abundance of digital evidence is part of what's driving that expansion, adding pressure to an already strained system.
That's contributing to trial delays, as is a heavy workload for attorneys.
"The amount of time that they have to put into these cases is just incredible," Hock expressed.
Hock says the strain leads to stress and exhaustion across the court system.
"We're all just doing what we have to do," she stated.
