title
Request from the Honorable Krista G. LaFave for approval of proposed Deposit Schedule for Wauwatosa Municipal Court
body
Submitted by:
The Honorable Krista G. LaFave
Department:
City of Wauwatosa Municipal Court
Every citation issued by the Wauwatosa Police Department must include a deposit amount. For citations that do not require a mandatory appearance, defendants can pay the deposit amount and enter a no contest plea in order to take care of the citation. For traffic citations, the deposit amount is provided by statute. See Wis. Stat. ? 800.037.
Wisconsin law requires that, for all other cases, "[t]he municipal court, with the approval of the governing body of the municipality, shall set the deposit schedule." The deposit amount must not exceed the maximum penalty established by the municipality for the offense, plus costs, fees, and surcharges imposed by Wis. Stat. ch. 814. See Wis. Stat. ?800.037. The City of Wauwatosa does not currently have a deposit schedule for nontraffic citations or ordinance violations. To that end, I have drafted a deposit schedule that meets the statutory requirements, and I respectfully request the Common Council approve of this schedule.
The deposit amounts were arrived at by considering deposit amounts in other cities, the amounts the police department has been using, Wisconsin's bond book for the adjacent criminal violations, and my experience seeing a wide variety of cases. The more severe citations, such as theft and battery, have a higher deposit amount to encourage appearance in court. The deposit schedule does not set a minimum or maximum amount that the Court can order for a defendant who appears in court. Those amounts are set by the Ordinances. Rather, the deposit is simply the amount that the defendant can pay for non-mandatory appearance citations in order to enter a plea and pay the fine.
The deposit schedule includes all of the costs and surcharges required under state law. Once approved by the Common Cou...
Click here for full text