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

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

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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.

We legally defend, with our tax dollars, our elected officials when they are sued for actions taken as part of their official duties. That's only natural and fair; the elected official shouldn't be personally liable for good-faith discharge of his or her duties.

Tagged with: Dale Kooyenga

The Wisconsin Legislature has made important new rules for civil litigation, implemented new periods of limitations and repose, and made other significant changes to state law.

Tagged with: Civil Procedure

We lost two outstanding Americans last week — nationally, former first lady Barbara Bush, and here in Wisconsin, the trailblazing civil rights champion Vel Phillips.

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Truth is stranger than fiction. The compelling facts in State v. Torres arose in Sheboygan County in 2014. Dorian Torres was the son of divorced parents, Emilio and Shelly.

Tagged with: Search and Seizure

Gov. Scott Walker tweeted a warning to fellow Republicans on Election Night last week: "Tonight's results show we are at risk of a (hashtag) #BlueWave in WI. The Far Left is driven by anger & hatred — we must counter it with optimism & organization."

Tagged with: Michael Screnock Rebecca Dallet

In a state with a mandatory bar, it’s perhaps inevitable that the dues lawyers must pay to practice law should become a subject of debate from time to time. Wisconsin has been no stranger to these controversies. In recent years, ...

Tagged with: Closing Arguments Jon Erik Kingstad Keller Keller dues Michelle Behnke

Anyone needing further proof of the need to reform Wisconsin's juvenile corrections system was given 18.9 million reasons last week.

Tagged with: DOC settlement Sydni Briggs

The courts have been busy lately reviewing federal trademark law. Understanding new decisions and recent trends is important for all growing businesses, since company brands, logos, and slogans are oftentimes their most valuable assets.

Tagged with: Intellectual Property

Adams Outdoor Advertising leased three billboards near the Dane County Regional Airport. Before the expiration of the lease, Adams Outdoor Advertising sought to renew it.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto

Even by the low standards that President Trump has set for selecting his judicial nominees, Gordon Giampietro, the president's pick to fill an open federal judgeship for Wisconsin's Eastern District, is an exceptionally bad prospect.

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In the wake of yet another mass shooting at a school — this one in Parkland, Fla., leaving 14 students and three staff members dead — President Donald Trump floated several proposals in response to the violence.

Tagged with: Donald Trump firearms guns Second Amendment

Shortly after Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011, he and his fellow Republicans in the state Legislature passed sweeping legislation touching on many corners of the state’s tort laws. Since then, scarcely a year has gone by without Republican ...

Tagged with: Closing Arguments tort reform

Despite last week’s mass murder in Florida and its many predecessors, I don’t want to take away your gun.

Remember when you were a kid and tattling was an art form? Perhaps you were the tattle-tale, never hesitating to rat out a classmate for flooding the sink again, or to throw your brother under the bus for breaking a ...

Tagged with: office of lawyer regulation OLR

Looking for a way to raise money for various road and building projects without raising the property tax levy, Brown County officials last year enacted an ordinance instituting a 0.5 percent local sales and use tax.

Tagged with: sales tax tax levy taxes

An insurance company deposited its remaining policy limits with the court after settling with several, but not all, of the claimants in a personal-injury lawsuit.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto

A judge's order of restitution doesn't make a criminal incident magically disappear, nor does it remove the memory of the incident from the victim's mind. It's an attempt by the judge to make things right for the victim by ordering the convicted person to pay back the victim for criminal wrongdoing against that person.

Tagged with: criminal code Van Wanggaard

In an era of extreme partisanship, here’s an example of bipartisanship at the Capitol: An Assembly committee has unanimously approved legislation that would boost compensation for people wrongfully imprisoned.

Tagged with: Claims Board Wisconsin Innocence Project

After the state Department of Justice released its report on the leak of John Doe records, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Tim Burns unloaded on Twitter.

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Recently, I had to tell a client some bad news. Not run-of-the-mill, we-lost-a-motion bad news, but life-changing, disruptive bad news that I could not do anything to change.

Wisconsin’s criminal jury instruction 140 describes the prosecutor’s burden of proof as “beyond a reasonable doubt.” However, it then contradicts itself by telling the jury “not to search for doubt” but instead “to search for the truth.”

Tagged with: Critic's Corner Michael D. Cicchini Michael Griesbach

Attorney General Brad Schimel is not the lawyer for Gov. Scott Walker's re-election campaign. But, in a stunning breach of faith that displays his extreme partisanship, Schimel is acting as if the Walker campaign were his client.

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Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin have been structurally disempowered by the most crooked of political maneuvers.

Tagged with: redistricting