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Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Law - Milwaukee and surrounding area spend $100 million in legal fees in 5 year period

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today reports:

Lawyer bills ate up close to $100 million in local tax dollars over the past five years in the five-county metro area, and legal spending by municipalities is on the rise, a Journal Sentinel analysis shows.

In many communities, even a portion of what cash-strapped school districts spent on lawyers would have been enough to pay for one or more teachers.

But the lion's share of the nearly $100 million, according to the analysis, was spent by cities, villages and towns. And their legal spending rose by 19% from 2001 to 2005.

"That's a lot of money for lawyers," said Mark Duff, a New Berlin School Board member and an officer with the non-profit Taxpayers Network. "If you're spending money on them, you're not spending it for police or fire or educating kids."

The newspaper's analysis covered the nearly 200 cities, villages, towns and school districts in Milwaukee, Racine, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties.

They were asked to provide the amount spent on legal expenses from 2001 through 2005.

Local governments reported spending more than $99 million on legal expenses during the period. The actual figure is likely closer to $100 million, however, because some of the expenditures were not available. Milwaukee Public Schools, for example, could not provide figures for the 2000-'01 and 2001-'02 school years. From 2002-'03 through 2004-'05, its annual legal expenses averaged more than $700,000. * * *

Despite pressure on local governments to cut spending, officials said most legal expenses simply cannot be avoided.

"If there are things that our instincts tell us we need legal guidance on," said Germantown schools Superintendent Victor Rossetti, "that's when we call the lawyers."

Officials say much of the money, whether spent on staff lawyers or on $150-an-hour private attorneys, could not simply be diverted to fill more potholes or hire teachers and police - at least not without a risk.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 5, 2006 08:26 AM
Posted to General Law Related