Key take-aways from April 14 meeting:

• The procedures for court proceedings with respect to Chapters 51, 54, and 55 will be published and subsequently forwarded to this group.
• Waivers are key documents for the opening and closing of estates; please obtain them from all interested parties.
• Temporary guardianship hearings are currently being held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• Permanent guardianship hearings may not be held because of the various in-person statutory requirements.
• The judges are looking for ways to keep cases moving and getting them closed; they want to avoid calendar congestion when Safer at Home is no longer in effect. 
• Zoom hearings are to be used whenever possible, if all interested parties may be heard using this technique. 
• For any hearings scheduled via Zoom, the clerk will send the passcode and other information necessary for participation. 
• If you have questions or problems, please reach out to the court via the clerks.
• The deadline for guardianship accountings has been unofficially extended through the end of the month; there is no need to petition for an extension until then. 
• Please exercise caution in using innovative techniques for the execution of documents such as wills; what the current judges may find acceptable now may not be what the judges a decade from now will find acceptable.
• Next Bench-Bar Meeting via Zoom will be on May 11^th at noon.

Top take-aways from the meeting:

• The Milwaukee FCC will have Zoom hearings available as early as next week.If you have a case that was scheduled before the FCC between March 16 – May 15th, and all parties are represented by an attorney, the lawyers may request a Zoom hearing date.To request this please e-mail Commissioner Berrios ([email protected]) and copy the other attorney. This is optional. You are welcome to wait for your adjourned in person hearing date, but if you want to get in sooner via Zoom then e-mail Commissioner Berrios.
• Judges have started to do stipulated divorces by affidavit as previously explained. The judges will discuss later this week what to do about the issue of access to notaries.
• The only in person hearings going on in family court right now are injunctions. 
• Judges and clerks have been getting issued state laptops with remote access. Many clerks are now coming back online and working remotely. 
• Ask the clerks individually about how to handle the Data Sheet. 
• Judges will still try to hear motions to enforce physical placement within 30 days, presumably via phone or video. Attorneys should put as much of the facts as they can in those motions if they want a hearing set. 
• If you have a court date before the FCC with two attorneys that will need to be rescheduled, the attorneys can e-mail Commissioner Berrios to try and arrange a new date. 
• Next Bench Bar Meeting via Zoom will be on May 4th at noon.