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

The race for Wisconsin Supreme Court produced one of the closest results in recent state history. With an unofficial count of the more than 1.2 million votes cast in Tuesday's election for the open seat, Judge Brian Hagedorn, a favorite of conservatives, leads Judge Lisa Neubauer, the chief judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals who drew substantial backing from liberals, by roughly 6,000 votes.

Tagged with: Brian Hagedorn Lisa Neubauer Wisconsin Supreme Court

With a new legislative session underway, once again there are efforts to require Wisconsin family courts to order equal physical placement in every – or virtually every – case.

Tagged with: domestic abuse Family Law Gregg Herman

The use of medical marijuana — marijuana prescribed by a physician — has been shown to have substantial benefit for patients with cancer, glaucoma, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, among other conditions.

Tagged with: marijuana

An interesting article recently appeared in the Wisconsin Lawyer concerning domestic abuse and child custody: Meuer, Gibart & Roach, “Domestic Abuse: Little Impact on Child Custody and Placement”, Wisconsin Lawyer, Vol. 91, No. 11 (December, 2018).

Tagged with: domestic abuse Family Law Gregg Herman

Five years ago state Rep. Melissa Sargent rejected the backward thinking of those who seek to maintain a failed "drug war" and announced: "The facts clearly show that legalization is right for Wisconsin and that the most dangerous thing about marijuana is that it's illegal."

Tagged with: Gov. Tony Evers marijuana Melissa Sargent

Lawmakers, judges and lawyers have all struggled to find the appropriate balance between the ideas of liberal discovery, designed to ensure that every party can secure the best facts to support its positions, and the rising cost of litigation, much of which is spent on discovery, especially of electronic information.

Tagged with: Civil Procedure

If America wants to be great, America and its leaders must be good.

Interrogators have tricks to get suspects to waive their Miranda rights and, once those are waived, to confess to crimes. But a confession won’t do the state any good unless a prosecutor can use it at trial.

Tagged with: Critic's Corner Michael D. Cicchini

On Nov. 7, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a grandparent-visitation case, Michels v. Lyons, 2017AP1142. This case affords the Supreme Court an opportunity to affect the law in an important and highly emotional area. In the ...

Candidates visiting the Kenosha News editorial board say there's heightened awareness among residents that the "dark store" tax loophole must be closed in Madison.

For decades, Wisconsin courts have deferred to administrative agencies’ interpretations of law. In a recent decision - Tetra Tech EC, Inc. v. DOR, the Wisconsin Supreme Court effectively ended this practice: “We have also decided to end our practice of deferring to administrative agencies’ conclusions of law.”

Tagged with: DeWitt Ross & Stevens

Family wealth disputes are not confined to the estates of entertainment superstars.

Tagged with: estate planning Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren

In all the years I have practiced law I have seen many lawyers run for public office and often win.

Tagged with: Ethics Hupy & Abraham Michael Hupy

Last week, a Pennsylvania grand jury documented 70 years of concerted efforts by Catholic bishops in that state to conceal more than 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse by priests – including rape, sadomasochism and producing child pornography.

Tagged with: sexual abuse

Recreational marijuana may never be legal in Wisconsin.

Tagged with: marijuana

Does glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widely used weedkiller Roundup, cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma? This question is at issue now in a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court. Hundreds more claims have been cleared to proceed in a federal multi-district lawsuit.

It’s 11 a.m. on a due date and I’m procrastinating, staring at my phone instead of my computer. This past month has been a mess, between deadlines and family health issues and summer school, with weddings and day trips and a conference thrown in for good measure. A three-hour hearing turned into six yesterday in a windowless basement room, and my lower back is screaming at me for sitting in the same wobbly government-issue chair in the same position for too long. Still, a stupid phone game is what I’m capable of handling right now.

Tagged with: Halling & Cayo Stacie Rosenzweig

Since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, also known as the GDPR, went into effect on May 25, 2018, many companies all over the world have brought their privacy policies up to date to comply with the regulation.

Tagged with: GDPR General Data Protection Regulation

Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to replace retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court comes at a tense moment.

Tagged with: Brett Kavanaugh

President Donald Trump's hard-line stance on immigration took an unconstitutional turn on Sunday.

Tagged with: Immigration

The Wisconsin Supreme Court voted in June 2017 to begin conducting deliberations on the state court system’s formal rules behind closed doors.

Tagged with: Closing Arguments Wisconsin Supreme Court

Limit the stain of money on decisions by the justices.

Tagged with: Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Supreme Court

The U. S. Supreme Court sidestepped the issue of whether a Colorado baker discriminated against a gay couple seeking a wedding cake and instead decided that the baker had been treated unfairly by the commission adjudicating the discrimination charge.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto

Shirley Abrahamson, the longest-serving Supreme Court justice in Wisconsin history, was often revered or despised depending on one's political viewpoint.

Tagged with: Shirley Abrahamson

When Shirley Abrahamson leaves the state Supreme Court next year, she will leave a legacy to remember.

Tagged with: Lester Pines Shirley Abrahamson Wisconsin Supreme Court

The teenager who shot and killed eight students and two teachers this month at a Santa Fe, Texas, high school got his weapons — a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol — from his father.

Tagged with: guns

The Supreme Court voted last week to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Sports gambling is not now legal nationwide, but the ruling allows states to pass their own laws to make it so.

Tagged with: gambling U.S. Supreme Court

In State v. McAlister a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court struggled to appropriately define cumulative evidence and introduces a contrived definition of recantation.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Emily Mueller Jean DiMotto State v. McAlister

Facebook recently divulged that the personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with a third party.

Tagged with: Facebook personal data privacy

Wisconsin added another chapter to its litigious history of skirmishes with lawmakers over releasing copies of public records under the state's open-records law last week.