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How the judges fared in 2017

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//January 25, 2018//

How the judges fared in 2017

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//January 25, 2018//

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The Wisconsin Court of Appeals issued more than 700 decisions in 2017 and affirmed circuit-court judges throughout the state about 86 percent of the time, coming close to meeting last year’s affirmance rate.

Of the cases that the Wisconsin Supreme Court chose to review, the justices released 42 decisions and affirmed trial-court judges 70 percent of the time. That was up from 65 percent in 2017.

The Wisconsin Law Journal conducted its  review by looking at decisions released by both courts from Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31.

The District 1 Court of Appeals, which comprises all of Milwaukee County, affirmed circuit-court judges 90 percent of the time, down from 93 percent in 2016.  Here’s the breakdown for the rest of the districts:

District 2, which includes Waukesha County, affirmed lower-court judges 86 percent of the time, up from 85 percent in 2016.

In District 3, it was 82 percent, up from 81 percent in 2016.

In District 4, which includes Dane County, judges were affirmed 85 percent of  the time, up from 82 percent in 2016.

Among trial-court judges, those who had the most decisions affirmed by the appeals court in 2017 included:

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Wagner, who was affirmed by the District 1 appeals court 23 times and had just one reversal. He also took the top spot for most affirmances in 2016.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski, who was affirmed 15 times and had no reversals.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Watts, who was affirmed 13 times and had no reversals

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judges William Pocan and David Swanson were each affirmed 10 times and had no reversals

The most frequently affirmed judge outside of Milwaukee County was Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Weston, who was affirmed 11 times and had no reversals.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Stephanie Rothstein was affirmed 14 times and reversed just three times.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Konkol was also affirmed 14 times and reversed two times.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judges Joe Donald and Christopher Foley were also each affirmed 10 times. However, Donald had one reversal, and Foley had two reversals.

Also, of the judges vying for Justice Michael Gableman’s top spot in the February primary, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Dallet and Sauk County Screnock both had a zero percent reversal rate. Screnock had two decisions affirmed, and Dallet had 8 affirmances.

Here’s how state trial court judges fared before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals

In compiling these data, we counted only full decisions that were both handed down by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and that were listed on the Wisconsin Court System. Summary decisions were excluded.

Also important to note is that judges could be listed here as presiding judges who were reversed, even though all they really did was to enter an order that was merely consistent with case law established by another judge.

Similarly, a judge’s decision could be reversed by the Court of Appeals but ultimately affirmed by the state Supreme Court. In a case of this sort, the previous reversal would still count as a reversal by the Court of Appeals.

It’s also worth pointing out that as the law changes, so can a judge’s holding. When it was issued, a holding could be entirely consistent with binding precedent and yet later be reversed because a subsequent decision had changed the law.

— Data gathered by Erika Strebel

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Here’s how circuit court judges fared before the state Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Law Journal has compiled a comprehensive review of every circuit-court decision the Wisconsin Supreme Court took up in 2017. Below is a complete listing showing both the judges who initially ruled on the cases that went before the justices and the outcomes before the high court of the decisions on appeal.

— Data gathered by Erika Strebel

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