Wisconsin Law Journal – WI Legal News & Resources Wisconsin Legal News & Resources

by Sara Burnett Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected to announce Wednesday a “major overhaul” of police training, including a requirement that every officer responding to a call be equipped with a Taser, after a series ...

Attorney General Brad Schimel released a statement Tuesday calling on the special prosecutor who had been the lead in a now-halted John Doe investigation to not try to take the probe before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tagged with: Brad Schimel Francis Schmitz John Doe investigation

Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Wednesday that will subject anyone who beats up or threatens a prosecutor to the same penalties as someone who similarly harasses a judge or law-enforcement officer.

Tagged with: harassment

Wisconsin has joined 48 other states that have laws in place intended in part to prevent the beneficiaries of structured settlements from having to pay excise taxes when they sell their future payments in return for upfront cash.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court announced plans Friday to weigh in on cases involving time limits on filing medical-malpractice claims, breach of the duty to defend clients and the state’s recreational immunity statute.

Tagged with: Wisconsin Supreme Court

A federal judge has sentenced a New Berlin homebuilder to two years of probation for failing to ensure that construction workers employed on a Milwaukee housing project received federally mandated prevailing wages.

Tagged with: J.P. Stadtmueller Nola Hitchcock Cross

Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker is hoping to pull his campaign off the mat by taking on unions — a familiar foe for the Wisconsin governor — in a sweeping plan to upend pillars of organized labor nationwide.

Tagged with: NLRB Scott Walker

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel is calling for the rejection of a lawsuit filed against the state’s new right-to-work law, arguing it not only makes use of a “novel” legal theory but is also grounded in no prior case law.

Tagged with: Brad Schimel right-to-work

Several parents are suing a private, military-style voucher school in Milwaukee, alleging their children were subjected to abuse and humiliating treatment when they attended a boot camp last fall.

A New Berlin homebuilder has agreed to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution and damages to settle charges that his company violated federal prevailing wage laws while working on the Westlawn Gardens public-housing project on Milwaukee’s northwest side.

Tagged with: prevailing wage

Lawyers and others who file court documents will be responsible for removing Social Security numbers and similar personal information beforehand, under a rule petition adopted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Tagged with: Annette Ziegler Gerald Ptacek Identity theft Wisconsin Supreme Court

“Flushable” wet wipes are gumming up sewer and wastewater systems, necessitating costly maintenance and repairs, the city of Wyoming, Minn., is alleging in a lawsuit filed against a half dozen companies in federal district court: http://bit.ly/1Jv5omZ

If history and precedent are any indication, unions stand little chance of having Wisconsin’s new right-to-work law overturned in court.

Tagged with: right-to-work William Foust

A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker says he is confident Wisconsin’s right-to-work law will withstand a court challenge filed Tuesday.

Tagged with: right-to-work

Shoppers could get liquor samples along with their weekly groceries under a bill approved by the state Assembly on Thursday.

Tagged with: Liquor licenses

Husband or wives who are on the verge of getting a divorce and install a global-positioning device on a car to track a spouse’s movements would be guilty of a misdemeanor under a bill passed by the state Assembly on Thursday.

Tagged with: GPS

A bill passed Thursday by the state Assembly would give Wisconsin courts jurisdiction over restraining orders or injunctions in cases of domestic, child and adult abuse, regardless of whether the alleged instances occurred in state or elsewhere.

Tagged with: child abuse domestic abuse restraining order

Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson expressed reservations Tuesday about the latest version of a proposed rule to prevent victims’ names from appearing in appeals court briefs.

Tagged with: Ann Walsh Bradley Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Judicial Council

A case argued before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday will help define when municipalities have the right to revoke a project permit following an initial approval.

Tagged with: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Even though a state project eliminated a Kenosha shopping center’s connection to a city street and forced customers to use a private drive, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled, the owners are entitled to no compensation under the state’s eminent-domain law.

Tagged with: Eminent domain Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Supreme Court

A former construction foreman was able to get a rape charge dismissed, but his lack of a legal means to prove his innocence might prevent him from getting compensation for the three years he spent behind bars.

Tagged with: Claims Board sexual assault

Half a year after the rejection of a train company’s claim related to Gov. Scott Walker’s scotching of a high-speed railway to be built between Milwaukee and Madison, a railway is seeking compensation related to the same project.

Tagged with: Claims Board Scott Walker WisDOT

State prosecutors are alleging a New Berlin company that boasts of having “no surprise plumbers” was in the habit of springing unexpected expenses on customers.

An Illinois-based sand mining company has agreed to pay an $80,000 fine in response to allegations that it failed to prevent untreated rainwater from running off a mine site in western Wisconsin.

Tagged with: DOJ John Damon mining

A developer whose company went belly up after he persuaded a small Wisconsin village to take on millions of dollars of tax increment finance debt for a resort has been sentenced to five years of supervision on a related charge of theft by contractor.

More than five years of litigation and a failed appeal have left Otis Elevator Co. with a $500 fine and a stained safety record stemming from a repairman’s injury at a Brookfield department store.

Tagged with: OSHA

One of the lead challengers of Act 10 said he had a good idea which way the ruling would go well before the state Supreme Court handed down its decision Thursday.

Tagged with: collective bargaining Juan Colas Lester Pines Patrick Crooks Wisconsin Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision released Thursday that whatever collective-bargaining rights state lawmakers give out, they can just as easily take away.

Tagged with: collective bargaining Lester Pines Michael Gableman

Although the Wisconsin Supreme Courts’ ruling on Act 10 pertains only to public employees, a lawyer who challenged the law contends there could be implications for private-sector unions.

Tagged with: collective bargaining Lester Pines

A Wisconsin Supreme Court decision issued Thursday avoided a reinterpretation of law that would have left many mortgage lenders wondering if they could retain their right to foreclose on delinquent loans.

Tagged with: Foreclosure N. Patrick Crooks Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Supreme Court