"I received a speeding ticket that I promptly filed a not guilty plea. It took approximately a year from the date of my filing the ticket to receive my hearing date, which was a date I could not attend. Upon notifying the Court clerk, KRIS, of my unavailability, I requested a video/telephone conference with the county DA, and was rudely advised that that was not available. When I requested a reasonable accommodation as a post cancer survivor with ongoing health issues, again I received a curt and rude no. I also explained that transportation is an issue as I live in Onalaska,Wi to no avail. Correspondingly, I received my return date for July 31, 2025.

I contacted Kris a day before the hearing and reported again that due to health issues I was unable to attend and again received a very curt and rude no to my request for another date or to speak directly to the DA, Michael Albrecht, for an accommodation. She added that my failure to appear will result in a guilty conviction.

I am a 72 year old man and licensed attorney in the state of Wisconsin. In my 47 years of practice, I have never encountered such a rude and belligerent Court clerk as this individual. Moreover, I don’t understand why my hearing can’t be accommodated via conf video or call as is common practice in other courts. Reading other reviews about this Traffic Court, I find this to be a fairly consistent culture all the way thru this small town court, including the maintenance man as one has reported. I know first hand what cancer is and this is certainly a cancer culture and far from the judicial system that I have practiced in as a lawyer and am duty bound to support. My objective of this negative review is to publicly share my experience and elicit a response from anyone but Kris at this Sauk County Traffic Court on this awful culture and inflexibility in honoring my very reasonable accommodation. The “ball” is truly in your Court!

Christopher A. Butler
Attorney At Law"

Chris Butler

"I received a ticket and planned to plead no contest on the date listed to appear in court. I took time off work and drove two hours to attend, only to be told at the door by a staff member that court is not held on Mondays. Instead of being able to enter a plea in person, I was only given the option to fill out a form to submit a guilty or not guilty plea. I was informed that if I chose “not guilty,” I would be scheduled to meet with a pre-trial judge, so I went with that option.

After waiting another 3–5 months, I took another day off work to attend this supposed pre-trial hearing—only to find out it was just a meeting with the state’s attorney, who clearly does not have the defendant’s best interests in mind. All that was offered to me was a $15 reduction, which felt like a waste of time.

I was then told I’d have my actual court date within the next two weeks. That didn’t happen. Instead, I ended up waiting several more months and had to take additional time off just to appear again.

The whole process has felt disorganized. It seems like even the staff aren’t always sure what’s going on. The only positive part of the experience was the professionalism and kindness of the officers at the front entrance.

Overall, I’m very disappointed."

Message Whynot

"First off, what’s with the vending machine reviews ?!?!?

Showed up for court today and a very rude lady claimed the judge isn’t able to see anyone today ; and made 10-15 people who showed up and 8am fill out piece of paper claiming “not guilty”

No contest wasn’t even an option.
What could have been a simple discussion is now another court date and me missing another day of work; aswell the several to 50 other people that had hopes of seeing a judge today are now rescheduled.

They could have notified us that the judge was not able to hear people today.

She claims I should have called ?

Avoid this county with your entire life

UPDATE: lady who awnsers the DA attorney office will not give you her name and talk over you. Providing my case number I started with 3 letters at a time 202 and she cut me off with a very rude tone “ yeah they usually start with 2024” I told her it was the next number if she had any patience. Continued to talk over me every chance I got.

Don’t bother trying to plead no contest apparently they don’t do this here?!?!?!?

Investigate these corrupt small towns with useless people with power."

K S