History & Organization of Wisconsin Judicare, Inc.
The Wisconsin State Bar Association organized Wisconsin Judicare in 1966 as a program funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity to provide legal services to low income persons. State Bar President Donald O’Melia and State Bar Executive Director Philip Habermann convinced officials in Washington to approve an experimental program that would pay private attorneys to provide free legal services to low income persons. Habermann coined the word "Judicare" as a name for the program. Judicare’s office opened in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 1, 1966, to serve low income people in 26 northern Wisconsin counties.
The State Bar of Wisconsin was the grantee for the program from 1966 to 1972 when the program was incorporated as Wisconsin Judicare, Inc., a nonprofit corporation. Judicare continued with funding from the Office of Economic Opportunity until 1976 when Congress established the Legal Services Corporation. Since that time the Legal Services Corporation has provided Wisconsin Judicare’s primary funding.
A director, an attorney, and one secretary staffed Judicare’s first office located in Madison. The program served counties located in northern Wisconsin. In 1972, the program moved its central office to Wausau where it remains today. The area served by the program has expanded so that Wisconsin Judicare now serves 33 northern counties and Wisconsin's 11 federally recognized Indian tribes.
Click Here to view the complete online Judicare Photo Album.
From its inception, Wisconsin Judicare emphasized utilization of the private bar to represent low income persons and provide eligible clients the freedom to choose their attorneys. The bylaws express these programs purposes:
"The purposes of Wisconsin Judicare are to give the underprivileged person as equal an opportunity in civil litigation and other civil legal matters as the privileged person while maintaining the dignity of the people involved, both lawyer and client. To provide the underprivileged client with the same freedom to choose his or her own attorney as any other person and so to maintain his or her individuality. To assure the underprivileged client that he or she will receive high quality legal services. To inform and educate the residents of the Judicare area of their legal rights and responsibilities through variety of appropriate projects and media. To provide the members of the bar with up-to-date information on legal theories, research and new decisions particularly applicable to the underprivileged client."
Simply stated the program operates as follows. Eligible persons are issued a Judicare card. When they have a legal problem, they take their card to a local attorney to discuss their problem. The lawyer then contacts the Judicare office. If Judicare approves the case, the local attorney does the work for the client and Judicare pays the lawyer’s fee.
From the beginning Wisconsin Judicare recognized a special commitment to serving Wisconsin Indians and Indian tribes. Wisconsin Judicare has played an active role in many major Wisconsin cases concerning tribal sovereignty and treaty rights issues in the last 30 years. Since 1980, Wisconsin Judicare has received a separate grant from the Legal Services Corporation to provide legal services to Native Americans.
Today, Wisconsin Judicare has one Executive Director, three Civil Unit Staff Attorneys, one Indian Law Office Director, and one Indian Law Office Staff Attorney. The attorneys are organized in a Civil Unit and an Indian Law Office. The program has one office
in Wausau and relies primarily on private attorneys to represent eligible clients. Wisconsin Judicare conducts weekly outreaches in Marathon County and South Wood County. Wisconsin Judicare also houses two volunteer lawyer projects that operate monthly: "Legal Grounds Wisconsin®" and "Wednesday Night Law Talk."
As a nonprofit corporation, Wisconsin Judicare is governed by a Board of Directors. Thirteen members of the 21-member Board are attorneys (two of which are Judges). They are appointed by local bar associations and one Board member is appointed by the State Bar President. Seven members of the Board are persons who at the time of their appointment to the Board were eligible for Judicare services. In addition, one board member is a representative appointed by the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council.
Wisconsin Judicare receives funding primarily from the Legal Services Corporation. For the calendar year 2005, Judicare will receive a basic field grant of approximately $841,908 and a basic field Native American grant of $141,556 from the Legal Services Corporation.
In addition, for 2005, Wisconsin Judicare received $80,000 from the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation (WisTAF). The Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services Division of Community Services also awarded Judicare a grant of $52,900 to provide outreach on health care issues and income maintenance to Native American elders and training for tribal benefit specialists in 2005. Judicare has been a recipient of this elder outreach grant since 1993. Wisconsin Judicare has been awarded US Department of Justice grants (Violence Against Women Act Grant and Bureau of Justice Affairs Grant). Judicare also receives continued community support, in the form of a United Way of Marathon County grant and United Way of South Wood County Grant. Recently, Judicare has been awarded an Otto Bremer Foundation grant.
|
|
Last Updated: April 13, 2008
Wisconsin Judicare, Inc. |
To Translate this page, |
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.
