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

It’s hard to know exactly how to feel about the sentencing of John Stender last week. He wasn’t behind the wheel on Nov. 3, 2018, when Colten Treu drove his truck through a group of Girl Scouts cleaning up litter along the side of Highway P. But he certainly bore considerable responsibility.

It is a central principle of law: Courts are supposed to follow earlier decisions – precedent – to resolve current disputes. But it's inevitable that sometimes, the precedent has to go, and a court has to overrule another court, or even its own decision from an earlier case.

Tagged with: U.S. Supreme Court

Many states, including Wisconsin, have public records laws. But that doesn’t mean requesters always get the records they seek, or even that the laws are followed.

Tagged with: Christa Westerberg Pines Bach Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council

If any normal person took a massive stack of $100 bills, poured gas on it and set it on fire, we would all think they were — well — insane. When our Legislature does it, we just shake our heads a bit and say, “Oh well, that’s Madison for you.”

Tagged with: Josh Kaul Wisconsin Department of Justice

In a previous column, I commented that one of the few silver linings of the dark, dark cloud called Covid-19 is that it has led to an increased use of technology, such as Zoom, and the resulting avoidance of unnecessary costs.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

Unless we’re dramatically misreading the judge’s comments late last week about Larry Lokken’s bid for an early release, he doesn’t appear to be going home soon. That’s as it should be.

Tagged with: editorial Jon Theisen Larry Lokken

We’ve been advocates of body cameras for law enforcement officers for many years. They give validity to two adages: — The camera doesn’t lie. — A picture is worth a thousand words.

On July 9, President Joe Biden issued an executive order entitled Promoting Competition in the American Economy to combat high prices due to “lack of competition” and low wages resulting from “barriers to competition.” To achieve its broad goal of ...

Tagged with: Joe Biden

The reason significant voter fraud doesn’t occur in Wisconsin is pretty simple: The potential cost of trying to dupe our democracy is much greater than any potential gain.

Tagged with: Elections Wisconsin Elections Commission

One of the blockbuster cases the U.S. Supreme Court will hear in its upcoming session is a challenge to Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban.

Tagged with: abortion U.S. Supreme Court

There is a saying that you cannot be a little bit pregnant. Well, apparently, you can be a little married.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

About four years ago I wrote a blog post titled “The Quiet Revolution in Wisconsin Administrative Law.” My purpose then was to point out an “unprecedented makeover in longstanding principles of state-level administrative law” that “shift(ed) power away from agencies ...

Tagged with: Wisconsin Supreme Court

The military spends a lot of time planning, updating plans, scrapping plans and re-planning. If you’ve ever served, you can attest to the amount of time and effort required to nail down every variable that is considered and planned for ...

“I’m here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse,” Britney Spears told a California court on July 14, 2021. She said that he was ruining her life, and in previous testimony she had claimed that ...

What used to be forgotten, unused space is now becoming one of the most innovative areas in real estate development.

Tagged with: Husch Blackwell

From condo salesman to reality TV host to leader of the free world, Donald Trump has occupied several lifetimes’ worth of identities over a remarkable career of reinventions. Even so, the billionaire mogul’s latest metamorphosis – into a consumer-rights plaintiff ...

Tagged with: Donald Trump First Amendment

Nothing in our legal system is more important than judges. Cases proceed (or don’t proceed) and resolve largely on the basis of the individual proclivities of the person wearing the robe. A good judge can make a complex, difficult case ...

It’s no secret that in recent years, the political divide between the left and the right has been growing. In today’s highly politicized environment, legislation and policy is often bogged down by political theater or diluted (or inflated) to get just enough votes for approval. The result can make for bad policy in some cases, and no policy in others.

Tagged with: Husch Blackwell Opportunity Zones tax credits

Pride month is as great a time as any for an employer to revisit its benefit programs and policies to ensure that the benefits being offered not only comply with the dynamic legal landscape, but also align with the employer’s intention on LGBTQIA+ inclusivity and equality.

Tagged with: Michael Best same-sex marriage Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce

Maybe it’s because I seem to be asked more and more frequently when I plan to retire (Answer: not for a while!)

The Federal Arbitration Act, or the FAA, enforces voluntary arbitration agreements involving federal law, including some employment-related disputes. Section 1 of the Act exempts certain classes of workers from the arbitration requirement, however, including seamen, railroad workers, and workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.

Tagged with: Axley Attorneys Federal Arbitration Act

The most discussed divorce case in social media today is the one recently filed by Bill and Melinda Gates. Although certainly not a typical divorce case, a few comments seem warranted, perhaps because of its unusual quality.

A number of years ago, I dedicated a column in this publication to what I called “silly” laws in the field of family law. It was called "State needs to divorce itself from these family law rules," and appeared in the July 2012 edition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant obstacles to M&A transactions.

Tagged with: coronavirus

The vaccine. For what has felt like the longest year of our lives, we have held out hope for a return to “normal.”

This week’s ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court was considerably narrower than what a lot of people seem to think. There’s a critical point that people are missing: the ruling wasn’t on whether a mask mandate is legal in and of itself. That question remains open.

Tagged with: Brian Hagedorn coronavirus Gov. Tony Evers Rebecca Bradley Wisconsin Supreme Court

My dear late mother used to say: It takes an awfully ill wind not to blow some good. The ill wind which is the subject of the column is the pandemic. The “some good” is the additional use of technologies by the courts.

Tagged with: coronavirus

Ruder Ware’s March 2 paean to the Wisconsin commercial docket and business court is long on cheerleading but devoid of meaningful evidentiary support.

Some things sound better on paper than they turn out to be in real life.

Court specialization has become more and more accepted throughout the country. Wisconsin took a significant step in 2017 to join a growing number of states that, in connection with the judicial administration of litigation, have established a specialized business court ...