Dane County Case Assignment System
Pursuant to Rotation Plan
August 1, 2011 through July 31, 2013

What is "The Draw"?

When a new case is filed with the Dane County Circuit Court, it is assigned a case number. For example, Dane County Circuit Court Case no. 04 CF 0021 is the 21st felony case filed in Dane County in year 2004. If it is a case that needs to be heard by a Circuit Court Judge, either the Arraignment Court Clerk (in Criminal cases) or a Clerk of Courts window staff person (in noncriminal cases) will use CCAP’s auto-assign feature to assign a judge to a case. Once a case is assigned to a judge, that judge will complete the case even after rotating to a new division.

Criminal Division

Each judge will receive an equal number of cases, 16.6% of the draw. Effective August 1, 2011, the following judges will be in the criminal division:

• Nicholas McNamara
• Branch 11
• Branch 16
• Stephen Ehlke
• William Hanrahan
• Julie Genovese

Civil Division

Each civil division judge will be assigned 12.5% of new filings, except that the judge with Drug Court responsibilities will receive 9% of new filings. Each juvenile division judge will be assigned 4% of new filings. Effective August 1, 2011, the following judges will be in the civil division:

• Juan Colás
• C. William Foust
• MaryAnn Sumi
• John Albert
• Richard Niess
• Frank Remington
• John Markson (Drug Court)

Juvenile Division

Each judge assigned to the juvenile court division shall draw 25% of the cases. Effective August 1, 2011, the following judges will be in the juvenile division:

• David Flanagan
• Peter Anderson
• Amy Smith
• Shelley Gaylord

Chief Judge Caseload

The Chief Judge's caseload will be reduced by 25% across all case types that would normally be assigned pursuant to the draw.

Duty Week

Each judge serves as the duty judge on a 24/7 basis every 17 weeks. The duty judge is assigned felony preliminary hearings, mental commitment trials and certain other matters set during that week.