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Labor Logic

By: dmc-admin//June 7, 2006//

Labor Logic

By: dmc-admin//June 7, 2006//

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Prosser

John D. Finerty, Jr.

Effective Oct. 1, 2006, most defendants sued in Wisconsin state courts will have 20 days to serve a responsive pleading. The new law represents a change in the current statutes, reducing from 45 to 20 days, the response deadline. The exceptions, however, are when the responding party is an insurance company, government agency, or the complaint is a tort action. Then, the time period remains at 45 days.

Legislative History

According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, under current law, a defendant responding to a complaint in a civil action has 45 days after receipt of the pleading to respond. The current law took effect in 1997; before that, a party generally had 20 days after the receipt of a pleading to answer or otherwise plead. Wisconsin Act 442 returns the Wisconsin law to the pre-1997 response deadlines.

Effect on Related Statues

The 45-day response deadline is cross-referenced in other statutes and, accordingly, changes with this new law. For example, individuals served by a building inspector with a petition alleging a building is a public nuisance, complaints filed in an action to overturn a worker’s compensation administrative hearing, or a municipality’s decision regarding a license application have new response deadlines.

Exceptions

The time frame to respond to most civil actions will be 20 days. There are two important exceptions. One exception is for insurance companies and public employees.

When the responding party is an insurance company, the time frame remains at 45 days.

In addition, if a defendant is the state, an officer, agent or employee of the state, or a state agency, and the action involves a claim for damages resulting from actions of a public employee or official acting in his or her official capacity, the response time is 45 days. The second exception is for complaints sounding in tort that are also allowed 45 days.

To read the original bill, amendments, its history, and the legislative council’s summary of the new law, see www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/sb99hst.html.

Effective Date

Section 18 of Senate Bill 99, that was signed into a law as Act 442, sets the effective date as follows: “This Act takes effect on the first day of the fourth month beginning after publication.” The new law was published June 5, 1006. The new law, therefore, becomes effective Oct. 1, 2006.

For more information on this statute or help in defending any state court action, contact John D. Finerty, Jr. at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP at (414) 225-8269 or on the Internet at [email protected].

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