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

When a Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney turned a witness list in a “shaken baby” case over to the defense 13 days before going to trial, attorneys for the defendant cried foul.

Tagged with: Chad Kerkman

Although a switchblade is not typically considered the best weapon for home security, a recent District 3 appellate decision found that the owner of a folding blade in Wisconsin was still entitled to protection under the Second Amendment.

Tagged with: Dee Dyer

Should 30 years of experience and an average of more than eight hours a day behind the wheel make a trucker more aware than the average driver of dangerous traffic conditions and thus better able to avoid an accident?

When Mary Porter went shopping for a new car with her husband in 2010, she was dead-set on buying a red one with a beige interior to keep her cool in the summer.

Tagged with: Lemon Law Paul Van Grunsven

Most restaurants don’t make it past the three-year mark. Thomas Linn’s Bristol Restaurant, early on at least, seemed to be one of the few that would beat the long odds. By the middle of 2013, the New Berlin restaurant was well into its fourth year of operation.

More than nine months after Michael Luedtke had rammed his Ford Escort into the back of a stopped vehicle at an Oshkosh intersection, he was charged on Dec. 19, 2009, with six felony counts of impaired driving and operating a vehicle with a controlled substance in his blood.

Tagged with: Karen Seifert Wisconsin Supreme Court

Mary Oden was no doubt confused as she lay in a hospital bed the day after her Milwaukee duplex blew up in the middle of the night just over six years ago.

Tagged with: Michael Guolee

Without a termination date, would a 1998 agreement giving a local dairy company the right of first refusal to buy or rent 450 acres of farmland in Outagamie County be enforceable?

Tagged with: Michael Gage Wisconsin Supreme Court

When David Friedlen was asked by his employer of almost 20 years to sign a restrictive covenant or lose his job, he signed on the dotted line.

Tagged with: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Just because a Kentucky parolee violated a rental car agreement should not prevent him from challenging a possibly illegal car search, according to a recent 7th Circuit opinion.

Tagged with: 7th Circuit Probation searches

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision, expected by the end of this term, in Julie A. Augsburger v. Homestead Mutual Insurance Co., could markedly increase liability risk for property owners who allow dogs on the premises, according to defense counsel in the case.

Tagged with: Wisconsin Supreme Court

When determining whether a former spouse has shirked his or her duties in paying child support, on what case should courts rely?

Tagged with: child support

When Re/Max Select LLC wrapped up negotiations to sell a $6.3 million vacant lot to Alexander & Bishop in 2007, the real estate firm probably figured its hard work was done.

Tagged with: Contracts Wisconsin Supreme Court

Wisconsin easement holders beware: If your express easement hasn’t been referenced in a recorded document in either 40 or 60 years, you could lose it.

Tagged with: Chad Kerkman

A consolidated case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court could affect how preliminary hearings are conducted in state.

Tagged with: State Public Defender's Office Wisconsin Supreme Court

Even though there was “no dispute” that a sheriff’s deputy lacked probable cause, the Court of Appeals ruled he did not violate state law or a defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights when requesting a blood draw at the scene of a fatal crash.

Tagged with: Fourth Amendment Patrick Taggart

When should an employee be paid for the time it takes to put on and take off work clothes and other equipment before and after a shift at a Wisconsin pepperoni and salami processing plant?

Tagged with: DWD Wisconsin Supreme Court

When Watertown Regional Medical Center filed a small claims lawsuit trying to collect on an outstanding hospital lien, the District 4 Court of Appeals court had to decide whether a law firm was just acting as a conduit for payment or as an actual payor when it disbursed a related personal injury settlement.

Tagged with: David Wambach District 4 Court of Appeals Hupy and Abraham personal injury

Prohibitions against ex post facto laws are supposed to protect defendants from changes in the laws that increase punishment after a crime has been committed or sentencing has occurred, according to pro se defendant Aman D. Singh.

Tagged with: 2nd District Court of Appeals early release Ex post facto clause Gerald Ptacek

In a case now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the state hopes the justices will find some reason to keep pornographic images on a computer file admissible after a questionable Fourth Amendment search.

Tagged with: Eileen Hirsch J.B. Van Hollen Wisconsin Supreme Court

A restrictive 2011 city of Delavan ordinance limiting property density to one lot every 35 acres was, in fact, an unlawful zoning restriction that needed approval from the county and surrounding towns, according to a recent Wisconsin appellate court decision.

Tagged with: James Carlson

When company founders Terrance and Judith Paul decided to sell their majority interest in Wisconsin Rapids-based Renaissance Learning Inc. for $455 million in 2011, they offered a $1.60 per share bonus just to minority shareholders to keep them happy with the transaction.

A 1995 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision was not enough to sway the Court of Appeals to hold the town of Delavan to a similar standard, according to a recent decision.

Tagged with: Court of Appeals James Carlson Wisconsin Supreme Court

When landlord Anthony Gagliano & Co. Inc. tried to enforce terms of a lease against a remote tenant for a commercial space in downtown Milwaukee eight years after the lease was signed, tenant Quad Graphics asserted that 150 years of Wisconsin case law suggested the effort should fail.

Tagged with: Dennis Moroney lease Wisconsin Supreme Court

Wisconsin justices set to weigh in on longtime Lake Delton land dispute

Tagged with: Neider & Boucher

A ruling by the Wisconsin appellate court may have been the result of bad lawyering more so than successful appellate arguments.

Tagged with: First Amendment Thomas Flugaur

Convicted murderer Jack E. Johnson asked the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to find that a warrantless search conducted in Mexico, which violated U.S. Fourth Amendment protections, should also be viewed as a bad search by Wisconsin courts.

Tagged with: Court of Appeals Fourth Amendment Jack Johnson Justin Welch

The city of Wausau’s decision not to renew a liquor license for local bar IC Willy’s after it hosted a “Girls Gone Wild” event did not require de novo review, the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently ruled.

A writ of mandamus forcing Wisconsin’s Brown County and the city of Green Bay to maintain health insurance plans and benefits for police officers, firefighters and sheriff's employees should never have been issued, according to a Wisconsin appellate court decision in Green Bay Professional Police Association et al. v. City of Green Bay and Brown County, 2013 AP 269.

Tagged with: collective bargaining unions

As Wisconsin slowly pulls itself out of the real estate doldrums with the rest of the country, state courts’ dockets are teeming with property owners struggling to stay in their homes.

Tagged with: foreclosures