As of May 2008, there were 252 municipal courts and 254 municipal judges in Wisconsin. Milwaukee has the largest municipal court, with three full-time judges and three part-time court commissioners handling more than 240,000 cases annually.

The majority of municipal court cases involve traffic and ordinance matters, including first-time drunken driving offenses. Juvenile matters, such as truancy, underage drinking, drug offenses and curfew violations have become a large part of municipal court caseloads within the last few years. Municipal courts handle a significant portion of the statewide court caseload in these areas.

A listing of municipal court Web site links is available in the contact information section.

Municipal court directory

Creating municipal courts

Municipalities may join together to form one court. The contracting municipalities need not be contiguous or even in the same county. Any number of municipalities may join and voters in all the municipalities elect the judge.

A packet entitled Starting a Municipal Court is available to assist municipalities interested in creating municipal courts. It contains statistics about municipal courts, sample ordinances, answers to commonly asked questions, ethics advice and general information. The guide is continuously updated and distributed to municipalities upon request.

Use the navigation on the right to explore the municipal courts.

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