Justices issue order repealing dead man’s statute

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It’s official — the dead man’s statute is dead starting July 1.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order Tuesday detailing its decision to repeal the statute, which prevents the admission of testimony about a transaction if one of the parties involved has died.

Dead man’s statutes are now often considered antiquated, leading many states either to repeal or amend them.

In Wisconsin, the proposal to repeal the statute was brought forward by the Judicial Council. The court in October voted in an open conference to repeal the statute following a public hearing.

However, the issuance of Tuesday’s order was delayed by a motion for reconsideration filed by Milwaukee attorney S.A. Schapiro, who contended, among other things, that the justices could not repeal the statute because it was legislatively enacted and therefore a substantive change to the law.

The court denied Schapiro’s motion and used a footnote in Tuesday’s order to state that it had considered those issues.

The justices on Tuesday also issued an order involving a petition that would allow lawyer-mediators to draft settlement agreements in family-law cases. That rule change also takes effect July 1.