PILSF increase takes effect

August 8, 2025

Contact: Benson Gardner, communications and development manager, bgardner@wistaf.org

The first increase in the Public Interest Legal Services Fund (PILSF) took effect last month. The Wisconsin Supreme Court voted earlier this year to increase the assessment that supports the fund, enabling more people of limited means to access justice in Wisconsin.

PILSF is WisTAF's only stable funding source for civil legal aid grants.

Created by the Court, PILSF is funded by an annual assessment which Wisconsin’s actively practicing judges and attorneys pay into the fund. These resources go to WisTAF for funding civil legal services. 

The Court approved a proposal filed by access to justice organizations, which WisTAF's Board of Directors supported. The assessment went up to $75 on July 1, 2025, and is slated to increase again, to $100 on July 1, 2027. These increases in an integral piece of the civil legal aid funding mix will help mitigate declines many civil legal aid providers are facing in federal Victims of Crime Act funding as well as the imminent sunsetting of COVID-related funding streams.

Prior to the Court's vote, the assessment had not been raised since its inception nearly 20 years ago. Adjusted for inflation, the assessment's value had fallen from $50 to $31 in today's dollars.