Wisconsin Judicare's Civil Law Unit
| Civil Unit Staff |
Civil Unit Projects |
Domestic Violence Resources |
Bremer Grant Project |
Washing Violence Out Of Wisconsin |
Spanish Class Curriculum |
Judicare Best Practices |
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ATTORNEY ROSEMARY R. ELBERT
Attorney Elbert is Wisconsin Judicare's Executive Director and Civil Law Unit Director. She has worked at Wisconsin Judicare since October 1998. She was previously an attorney in private practice in Wausau and Milwaukee, and an Assistant Corporation Counsel for Milwaukee County. She received her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College, her M.A. from the University of Miami Florida (both in English Literature), and her J.D. from Marquette University. She is a member of the Wisconsin Bar.
ATTORNEY KIMBERLY HAAS
Attorney Haas joined Wisconsin Judicare as civil unit
staff attorney after working at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, Inc. in
Mankato, Minnesota for six years. Attorney Haas received B.S. degrees in Accounting and
Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 1997. Attorney Haas received her J.D.
from William Mitchell College of Law in 2000.
While at Legal Services in Minnesota, Attorney Haas received Minnesota Lawyer’s “Up and Coming Attorney” Award in 2004 and was recognized by the Committee Against Domestic Abuse in October 2003 for her work with domestic violence victims. Attorney Haas also coached the Cleveland High School’s mock trial team for four years, and now volunteers as a judge for the Wisconsin High School Mock Trial program, sponsored by the Wisconsin State Bar Association.
Attorney Haas is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association and Wisconsin State Bar and admitted to practice before the US Tax Court. She serves as the coordinator for the Wisconsin Judicare Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.
ATTORNEY JUDITH M. STERN
Attorney Stern is a Staff Attorney in Wisconsin Judicare's Civil Law Unit. Attorney Stern received her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Kenosha, WI, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, WI. Prior to obtaining her law degree, Attorney Stern worked as a group home house parent for KYDS, Kenosha, WI; an employment counselor for the State of Wisconsin Job Service; and a juvenile probation social worker for Kenosha County, WI. During these years, Attorney Stern was a Founder, Board Member, and Chairperson of the Board for Women's Horizons, Kenosha, WI's battered women shelter. After obtaining her law degree, Attorney Stern served as Assistant Family Court Commissioner for three years in Kenosha, WI, and continued her work against domestic violence. Commissioner Stern was a member of the coordinated community response team against domestic violence, facilitated abuser's workshops, and gave educational presentations on domestic violence to civic groups.
Commissioner Stern left public service to join Stern, Caviale, & Stern, Kenosha, WI as a lawyer in private practice. Here she maintained a family law practice, was managing partner of the the business, and part time appeals magistrate for Kenosha County Department of Social Services Medical Appeals. Attorney Stern left private practice when apointed Family Court Commissioner for Walworth County. Commissioner Stern served fourteen years on the bench in Walworth County. During that time, she established the Parenting After Separation program and supervised a highly successful custody mediation program (with over a 70% success rate.) In addition, Commissioner Stern served two terms on the Wisconsin Supreme Court's Gender Equity Committee, served as a board member for Habitat for Humanity, and initiated a coordinated community response team to address truancy. Commissioner Stern also assisted Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence in preparing programs and developing training materials on domestic violence for court commissioners. She is a member of the Wisconsin Bar as well as the Family Law and Children & the Law Sections of the Bar.
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Legal Grounds Wisconsin ®
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Project Created By: Attorneys Erin and Brynne McBride.
Housed at the YWCA of Wausau, 613 Fifth Street, Wausau, WI, Legal Grounds Wisconsin ® is a coffee house providing interested participants free coffee and legal advice. This approach will fulfill two dire needs of northern Wisconsin--the need to more effectively reach the low-income residents while generating interest among Wisconsin lawyers in providing badly needed pro bono service. The coffee house's clients will have access to lawyers volunteering their brief service and advice on topics such as family law, landlord/tenant matters and small claims. Legal Grounds Wisconsin ® has the ultimate goal of "helping people help themselves." It is not a project to represent clients in cases, but to help them through the legal process and steer them to other resources. It may also build awareness of the many self-help resources throughout local districts. It will provide convenient access to legal information in a relaxed atmosphere, so people have a better understanding of how to resolve their pressing legal issues.
Wisconsin Judicare HELPLINE
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The Legal Advice Helpline can be reached by calling 1-800-472-1638. The Helpline operates daily during normal Judicare business hours (8:30am-4:30pm). Calls are approximately 30 minutes long. The Helpline is for legal information, telephone counsel and advice, brief service and referrals only. Please be advised: Speaking to a Helpline Attorney does not mean the Attorney is representing you or will represent you in your case.
The toll-free Legal Advice Helpline is for financially eligible clients, calling with a "simple" legal question. The Helpline provides access to legal information for all financially eligible Judicare cardholders. Eligible individuals may call the Helpline to discuss and obtain information about legal issues such as Evictions, Utility Shut-offs, Security Deposit returns, Landlord-Tenant matters, SSI/SSDI or pre-Divorce questions.
Appointments for Helpline calls will be accepted. Callers without an appointment wil be answered in the order in which the call is made as staff becomes available. A fact finder asking about the specifics of the caller's legal problem may answer calls. The fact finder may connect the caller with a Helpline Attorney, provide legal informational pamphlets, or direct the caller to another source of legal assistance.
The purposes of this service are to:
1. Increase access for remote Judicare clients (or clients unable to make a personal visit to our office) on manageable legal questions;
2. Offer brief service, advice or referrals to Judicare clients on limited legal topics;
3. Continue to give the underprivileged person as equal an opportunity in civil legal matters as the privileged person while maintaining the dignity of the people involved; and
4. Continue to inform and educate the residents of the Judicare area of their legal rights and responsibilities through variety of appropriate projects and media. All calls are scheduled either in advance by appointment or are received on a first-call, first-served basis during specified Helpline hours.
If you have Limited English Proficiency, you have the following rights: You have the right to qualified interpreter services at no cost to you; You have a right not to be required to rely upon your minor children, other relatives, or friends as interpreters; and You have a right to file a grievance about the language access services provided you.
Violence Against Women Act Grant Seminars
For a complete listing of Domestic Violence Programs and Services in Wisconsin, click here:
In April and May of 2004, Judicare partnered with the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, American Indians Against Abuse, and the Ho-Chunck Nation Department of Justice. The Office on Violence Against Women funded the cooperation, in response to Judicare's proposal to increase awareness of domestic violence in rural, northern Wisconsin. The Seminars were titled: "Targeting Abuse in a Diverse Wisconsin," and highlighted domestic violence topics specific to the Indian and Immigrant client. Wisconsin is home to 11 federally recognized Indian Tribes, and has increasingly become home to Hmong refugees and Latino immigrants. Over 125 attorneys, lay advocates and tribal lay advocates in attendance learned a range of topics from basic intake and interviewing techniques, to the specific procedures of the complex self-petitioning process. The success of the training seminars led to an invitation for Judicare Attorneys Erin and Brynne McBride to present at the 2004 Women and Poverty Conference. An entire workshop was devoted to the "Targeting Abuse" presentation, and special attention was given to the remedies and legal relief available to an immigrant victim.
In 2005, the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Crime Victims Services requested this same seminar be presented to all Victim Witness Coordinators across Wisconsin. Staff attorneys have continued to attend various trainings specific to victims of domestic violence. Conferences throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington D.C. and Texas have provided valuable insight, materials and networking.
Judicare was fortunate to receive a new VAWA grant in 2005. Judicare partnered with AIAA and GLITC once again to increase access to legal services for victims of domestic violence. Special attention was again focused on Indian and Immigrant victims of abuse. Three training seminars are occurring between December 2005 and December 2006.
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Bremer Grant Project
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Wisconsin Judicare, Inc. submitted an ambitious proposal to the Otto Bremer Foundation, and was awarded with a $150,000 grant. The Bremer Foundation based in St. Paul, MN, funds projects that promote economic and social justice with a focus on Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. This project targets residents of the northwestern Wisconsin counties that comprise the Tenth Judicial District. 
This large, primarily rural area is home to approximately 496,500 people, 45,766 of whom were recorded as below the federal poverty guidelines in the 2000 US Census. The grant will fund efforts to develop and implement a plan for improving access to the courts in northwestern Wisconsin. The project is expected to focus on standardizing court rules and procedures among the counties, making simplified forms and plain-English instructions available, training court staff, clerks, and judges to improve how they communicate with people representing themselves in court, and undertaking a major public outreach campaign. The Wisconsin Court System did a feature story on this grant in the December issue of The Third Branch, titled "Grant will Help Residents of Northwestern Wisconsin Navigate Court System." Wisconsin Judicare Executive Director Rosemary Elbert was quoted, "We are elated by this news, and are grateful to the Otto Bremer Foundation for funding the proposal...It may truly be said that tens of thousands of Wisconsin residents will benefit from this effort."
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Washing Violence Out of Wisconsin
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Project Created By: Attorneys Erin and Brynne McBride.
Wisconsin Judicare’s Civil Law Unit developed a specialized program for local beauticians and stylists. The project titled, “Washing Violence Out of Wisconsin” 
introduces attorneys and advocates in central Wisconsin to local hair professionals. These brief training seminars teach how to recognize signs of domestic violence, initiate a conversation about violence, and make appropriate referrals. Wisconsin Judicare has a history of providing comprehensive continuing legal education programs for civil law attorneys and agency members throughout Wisconsin.
In an effort to expand its audience, and after conversations with salon owners and managers, it was clear professionals were eager for an opportunity to be educated for “uncomfortable instances” when a customer appears abused. Hair professionals are in a unique position to inform their clientele while simultaneously providing a cosmetic service.
WI JUDICARE BEST PRACTICES
Last Updated: April 13, 2008
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Disclaimer of Liability
Wisconsin Judicare, Inc. provides the information on this Web site as a public service to low-income persons in northern Wisconsin, our participating attorneys, card issuers, and other Internet users. While the information on this site is about legal issues, it is not legal advice. Laws vary from state to state and even federal laws may be applied differently in different states. Moreover, due to the rapidly changing nature of the law and our reliance upon information provided by outside sources, Wisconsin Judicare makes no warranty or guarantee concerning the accuracy or reliability of the content at this site or at other sites to which Judicare.org links.
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