Opinion
October 4, 2000
The Honorable Chuck Chvala Senate Majority Leader 211 South, State Capitol Madison, WI 53702
Dear Senator Chvala:
The Senate Committee on Organization asks whether municipal courts have authority to order the parents of a juvenile to pay a forfeiture imposed on their child for violating a non-traffic municipal ordinance. I have concluded that they do.
In addition to the inherent powers possessed by all courts to enable them to perform their judicial functions, municipal courts have other powers conferred by statute. See City of Sun Prairie v. Davis, 226 Wis.2d 738, 747-48, 595 N.W.2d 635 (1999); State ex rel. Lang v. Municipal Justice Court, 50 Wis.2d 21, 25, 183 N.W.2d 43 (1971). These additional powers need not be conferred expressly, directly and unequivocally, but may be derived from a reasonable construction of the statutes. Cf. Milwaukee v. Kilgore, 193 Wis.2d 168, 183-87, 190-91, 532 N.W.2d 690 (1995) (construing ambiguous statutes to confer on municipal courts power to suspend driver's license for failure to pay forfeiture imposed for violation of non-traffic municipal ordinance).
Although no single provision directly authorizes municipal courts to order parents to pay their children's forfeitures, this power may be found in the statutes by following a marked trail through a series of sections beginning with the one which makes parents liable for the forfeitures.
The Juvenile Justice Code, Wis. Stat. § 938.45 (lr)(b), provides that "[i]n a proceeding in which the court has determined under s. . . . 938.343 (2)" to impose a forfeiture on a juvenile, "the court may order a parent who has custody . . . of the juvenile to pay the forfeiture."
The Juvenile Justice Code defines a "court" as the juvenile court, or in the case of a juvenile who is subject to Wis. Stat. § 938.17 (2), a municipal court. See Wis. Stat. § 938.02 (2m). Wisconsin Stat. § 938.17 (2) gives municipal courts concurrent jurisdiction with juvenile courts in cases involving non-traffic municipal ordinance violations, including jurisdiction to enter any of the dispositional orders permitted under Wis. Stat. § 938.343. See Wis. Stat. § 938.17 (2)(d). Wisconsin Stat. § 938.343 (2) permits a court to impose a forfeiture on a juvenile for violating a non-traffic municipal ordinance.
Sincerely,
James E. Doyle Attorney General