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

"Should police automatically have the right to search the vehicle of someone arrested on suspicion of OWI? Or should they have to show that they have some reason, particular to the driver who was arrested, to believe that OWI-related evidence will be found in the vehicle?"

Tagged with: drunken driving Fourth Amendment

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a landmark decision last month holding that the prohibition on registration of “disparaging” trademarks under § 2(a) of the Lanham Act is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment.

Transparency is the core value of a democratic society. In a democratic self-government, voters have the power to select and reject those who will wield the power of government.

Tagged with: Ed Fallone Open Records open records law

For 25 years, the maximum penalty amounts for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act have remained frozen. A thaw is about to set in — and quick.

Tagged with: OSHA Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek

Earlier this month, state Rep. John Spiros, R-Marshfield, released a misleading opinion piece on a bill aimed at overhauling Wisconsin's workers' compensation system.

Tagged with: Worker's compensation

It’s your best — and perhaps only — opportunity to persuade a judge to rule in your client’s favor By Roger T. Manwaring Dolan Media Newswires For most lawyers, the Argument sections of appellate briefs are full of pitfalls. Here ...

Rooftop signage on a pair of new Wells Fargo office towers in downtown Minneapolis will “photo bomb” the nearby new Minnesota Vikings stadium in violation of an agreement between the bank and the team, according to a lawsuit.

Many people confuse mediation with more formal — and binding — arbitration and litigation procedures. Adding to the confusion, mediation is often combined with those two procedures, although doing so isn’t necessary.

Tagged with: mediation

The U.S. Department of Justice recently scored victories in two False Claims Act cases involving providers’ alleged failure to return overpayments as mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Tagged with: Affordable Care Act Medicaid Medicare Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek

Court-referred mediation is happening every day throughout the country, in sessions conducted by lawyers, as well as non-lawyers who have been certified as mediators.

Tagged with: Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation

For some law students who plan to build a family law practice after passing the bar exam, learning to become a skilled litigator who zealously advocates for clients in custody battles and contested divorces is just the beginning.

Tagged with: Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation Pro se

I recently took a class in negotiation. It was taught by a well-regarded social scientist. The instructor taught us to increase negotiated advantages and avoid pitfalls.

Tagged with: Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation

With the enactment of some new custody and parenting-time statutes across the U.S., judges and custody evaluators are compelled to examine acts of domestic abuse in a new light.

Tagged with: Alternative Dispute Resolution

With Gov. Scott Walker still best known for his Act 10 law that substantially curbed the collective-bargaining rights of most public employees, few might remember that his actual first priority upon taking office in 2011 was tort reform.

Tagged with: Act 10 punitive damages

Forty or 60 years may seem like a generously 
long amount of time to re-record an easement, 
but for many Wisconsin property owners who are unaware of Wisconsin’s re-recording statute time is of the essence.

Tagged with: Easements

In July, the Wisconsin Supreme Court handed down a 4-2 decision that brought to a halt a John Doe investigation into whether Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, during the 2012 recall election, worked illegally with outside groups. Two of the justices who ruled with the majority — David Prosser and Michael Gableman — had previously been asked to recuse themselves.

Tagged with: Brendan Fischer John Doe investigation Rick Esenberg

The nightmare is finally over. You know the one: It's the first day of law-school exams, and you realize that not only have you have slept through your alarm, you have also forgotten to attend class — throughout the entire semester. You wake up as you burst into the exam room, where your classmates have just finished typing their final answers. You have failed. You'll never be an attorney.

Tagged with: Law school Wisconsin Association for Justice

In the past decade, technological innovation has occurred faster than ever before, creating opportunities that construction industry professionals never could have imagined.

Tamara B. Packard, an attorney at Cullen Weston Pines & Bach, and Michael Dean, a lawyer whose main office is in Brookfield, battle over the question: Should language banning same-sex marriage by removed from the state constitution?

Tagged with: gay marriage

William and Charles Mayo radically changed the business of medicine when they introduced doctors to the idea of forming groups to share their skills.

Remember the Marlboro Man, that stalwart image forever linked to the American West? A symbol of ruggedness, he was used by the Philip Morris tobacco company to sell millions and millions of cigarettes from 1954 to 1999.

Tagged with: Copyright Intellectual Property Social media Trademarks

Recent cyber attacks have caused companies to focus on privacy and security issues more than ever before.

Tagged with: cybersecurity Quarles & Brady

The time has come for every company that participates in the global economy to start paying attention to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, also known as the FCPA.

Tagged with: Foley & Lardner

Establishing a strong network is a key component to developing business, as it sets the stage for more client work and referrals.

Tagged with: networking

Lawyers tend to have a love/hate relationship with technology.

Tagged with: technology

You arrive to work one morning and boot up your computer. Instead of seeing your usual background, an unusual message pops up on your screen. The message tells you that your files have been “locked” and the only way to unlock them is to transfer several hundred dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to the keyholder within a short period, maybe 48 hours.

Tagged with: cybersecurity

When blogging started to become commonplace a decade ago, it wasn’t something many lawyers concerned themselves with. Eventually, lawyers began to blog and many began to wonder whether blogs constituted lawyer advertising and thus required disclaimers.

Tagged with: blogging

Few subjects arouse such irritation (on all sides) as the enduring question of how many spaces to put after a period at the end of a sentence. Some say two. Some say one.

Perjury is the classic, and extreme, problem in ethical witness preparation.

When most people think of identity theft, they tend to imagine a hacker using stolen credit card information to buy high-ticket items, or using Social Security numbers to open fraudulent accounts.

Tagged with: Identity theft