814.615.Fees for mediation and studies.

When a family court refers parents to mediation or orders a custody or placement study under s. 767.405, someone has to pay for it. Section 814.615 fixes that cost. The first mediation session after a referral is free. After that, the county may charge a single flat fee for all further mediation, no matter how many sessions it takes, and a separate flat fee for a study. Both figures are increasing on November 1, 2026, under 2025 Wisconsin Act 179: the mediation fee moves from $200 to $285, and the study fee moves from $300 to $460.

The county decides when and how to collect these fees, but it can’t charge the flat rate to everyone regardless of means. Subject to the court’s own directive under (3), the county must reduce the fee based on the parties’ ability to pay, and if both parties can’t pay, the county still has to provide the service without payment.

Instead of the flat fees in (1)(a), a county may adopt its own fee schedule to recover its reasonable costs of running family court services under s. 767.405. That schedule still has to waive the first mediation session, still has to base later charges on ability to pay, and still has to account for the family-action fees the county already collects under s. 814.61 (1) (b) and (7) (b) — so families aren’t charged twice for the same underlying service. A schedule can’t apply one flat number regardless of how many sessions or services a family used; it has to track what was provided.

Enforcement runs through the court. A judge or circuit court commissioner directs one or both parties to pay whatever fee applies, and if neither can pay, the court enters a separate judgment for that amount in the county’s favor against the responsible party or parties. Whatever the county collects under this section goes into a separate account earmarked only for providing mediation services and studies under s. 767.405.