Approve justice’s request

I write to support Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack’s reasonable request for a 16% pay raise for Wisconsin judges (“Judges seeking 16% pay increase,” Jan. 9).

As a trial lawyer with more than 45 years of experience handling litigation, trying cases and arguing appeals in Wisconsin and states throughout the country, I have seen all manner of judges at work in many different states.

Having this opportunity to compare the quality of jurists over many years and in many places, I have always been impressed by the high caliber of our Wisconsin judges and proud to hear judges from other parts of the country hold up Wisconsin’s court system as a model. Our judges make many personal and financial sacrifices to serve our people. Their hours can be long and grueling and cases they handle difficult, contentious and very unpleasant. This hard work is vitally important to the quality of life we enjoy and critical to the protection of rights guaranteed us by our Constitution.

As the Wisconsin lawyer representative to the National Center for State Courts, I am acutely aware that our judges are substantially underpaid. Courts cannot be evaluated under a business model that looks at things such as employment, sales, acquisitions and profits. Rather, they should be valued for the indispensable role they play as the cornerstone of our free society.

Our judges are talented, dedicated and severely undercompensated. That’s not fair and that’s not right. The chief justice’s pay increase request should be approved.

Frank J. Daily Milwaukee