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

As you can imagine, last week’s column about the poetry of John Milton went over well on The Dark Side. What you may not guess, though, is that in my social circles any discussion of poetry inevitably leads to the leftist poet, Delmore Schwartz. It matters not whether it occurs in a high-brow salon or a low-brow saloon: Schwartz remains ...

As a male, if I ever get divorced, I want Judge Kenneth W. Forbeck from Rock County assigned to my case. As a family law attorney, if I have a case on appeal, I don’t want District IV of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals if there is a pension or tax issue involved. For years, Wisconsin appellate courts have wrestled ...

My recent column about the unresponsiveness of state bar associations to the needs of small law firms and sole practitioners brought strong comments from the presidents of the Minnesota State and Hennepin County Bar Associations, asserting and demonstrating that they do have the interests of these lawyers at heart. Just as there are good and less-than-good lawyers, so are there ...

LinkedIn occasionally e-mails me updates about what the members of my professional network are up to, and I noticed the last time around that the e-mail always informs me about a few of the groups people have joined. This got me thinking about groups as a free marketing tool for lawyers. After spending a little time on Google, I discovered ...

I recently conducted a simple Google search for "Wisconsin Law Firms.” Only Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C. (Milwaukee) and Axley Brynelson, LLP (Madison) appeared on page one. The No. 1 spot was occupied by FindLaw.com, which lists Wisconsin attorneys by location within the state. Ranked No. 3 is HG.org, which lists attorneys by Wisconsin city and practice focus. The rest of ...

Deep down, I’m just a simple, provincial lawyer So, the powerlust that motivates what is called “the social justice crowd” has always been something I couldn’t fathom. I gave up trying to understand their motivation decades ago. In rereading John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” though, I may have finally found the understanding I was seeking. The most powerful passage in the ...

I find it entertaining when a judge puts a bit of humor in an opinion or when they are creative when drafting a decision. Several years ago, a friend told me about Fischer v. Lowe, 333 N.W. 2d 67 (Mich. Ct. App. 1983). The case is about an incident involving a car and a tree. The decision is quite poetic ...

For better or worse, government has been intruding into our lives for years. The government knows our income, tells us what we can build on our property, and even knows how much we inherit from our families. I am truly amazed how much the government cares about me and my money. And what does the government do with my money? ...

Informative legal blogs from around the state. Judge DiMotto on jurors trying to avoid service. Link Professor O’Hear on public defender financing. Link

Judge DiMotto on premises liability actions. Link Rick Esenberg on the constitutionality of mandatory health insurance. Link

For all the chatter the mandatory versus voluntary bar issue has generated in the last year, perhaps the legal community has heard enough – at least from potential future leaders of the State Bar. Mere weeks before ballots go out to lawyers only six people attended a president-elect candidate forum hosted by the Milwaukee Bar Association this week. This time ...

It’s not often I’m given a soapbox. But since David Ziemer suggested swapping columns – he’d write about ways to save money in the law office, and I’d write something voicing a strong opinion, here goes. What David learned from our little experiment was that, try as he might to avoid his dark side, it still slipped out. I’ve found, ...

Is credit history a protected class? In some states it is, and in others, including Wisconsin, it may soon be. Accordingly, legal liability may follow if an employer takes action against someone because of his/her credit history. For years, employers have refused to hire or employ individuals with blemished credit histories. Estimates reveal that nearly half of all employers discriminate ...

Bonnie Shucha, in her recent WisBlawg post, discusses the new PACER Case Locator. Check it out. This interface replaces and improves the old U.S. Party/Case Index. And, there is more news regarding PACER. The Judicial Conference approved “key steps to improve public access to federal courts by increasing the availability of court opinions and expanding the services and reducing the ...

Bonnie Shucha on changes to the Pacer system.LinkJudge DiMotto on motions after verdict.Link Richard Esenberg on Twombly and Iqbal.Link

One of Marquette University Law School Dean Joseph D. Kearney’s favorite lines is from one of the institution’s most distinguished alum, who never practiced law. Joseph J. Zilber graduated from the law school in 1941 at the top of his class, but opted to enter the business world instead and found long-term success. “He would often quip to faculty and ...

Last weekend, I went on an outing with a conservative organization to a shooting range. Perhaps there are better ways to spend the Sabbath than target practice with a group of beautiful, right-thinking, heavily-armed young women. But none come to mind just now. The particular weapon that I brought to the event was a revolver manufactured in England, rather than ...

Looking for the nutrient content of a particular food? Try the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, release 22. It “contains data on 7,538 food items for up to 143 components.” The mission of the data laboratory which compiles the information is “[t]o develop authoritative food composition databases and state of the art methods to acquire, evaluate, compile and ...

Rule changes in the Eastern District of Wisconsin.Link Jon Groth on texting while driving.Link

The other day my fellow Law Journal columnist, Jane Pribek, and I decided to swap columns. I would give advice on how to save a few bucks, and she would explore The Dark Side of the legal profession. “So, where do you get your column ideas?” I asked. “I spend lots of time on the Internet looking for new apps ...

Most lawyers have neither the time nor the resources to produce extensively researched and intricately crafted legal briefs. The process is often viewed as a time-eating money loser, and so assigned to young, inexperienced associates. Briefs, however, and the research that goes into them, are critical to successful litigation. I know. For over 28 years, my work days, nights and ...

It has almost become cliché to write an article discussing “these difficult economic times” and projecting a grim business climate. Certainly, budgets are smaller and belts are tightening. The federal and state governments need money too. Across the nation, we hear stories of politicians recommending tax increases and government employees facing pay reductions, pay freezes or even mandatory furlough days. ...

On Tuesday morning I heard an advertisement for Badgerlink on my favorite classic rock radio station. I was so excited! If you are not familiar with it, Badgerlink is an amazing FREE service offered by the Department of Public Instruction. It provides online access to various quality resources and all you need is a library card! The website explains that ...

What is a 'sobriety checkpoint'? A sobriety checkpoint is a police barricade set-up to snag drunk drivers. Discussion of noncompete clauses at the Wisconsin Business Law Blog.Link Capitalization in trial court briefs.Link Tracey Wood on sobriety checkpoints.Link

Surely, one of the most remarkable events of the recent Winter Olympics was the emergence of women’s curling as must-see television. People would sit down and ask, “Why is this even on television?” Fifteen to twenty minutes later, they would be rebuffing attempts at conversation with, “I can’t talk now. I have to watch this shot by Cheryl Bernard [the ...

The tide is turning in law firms. The conventional practice of starting a career with a firm and remaining until retirement is no longer the norm. According to a recent National Law Journal article, “the market for lateral partners is the most robust it’s been in 22 years.” Whether it is a single attorney shifting laterally to another firm, attorneys ...

As attorneys and counselors-at-law, you answer questions all day long for paying clients. But have you ever considered answering questions on the Web as a means of obtaining more paying clients? Some attorneys have had success using Avvo Answers, a free legal advice forum for consumers. Avvo says it’s “the world’s largest legal directory.” You likely received an e-mail from ...

Ever need to find out the organizational structure, including specific individuals, for a company? A free online tool that may help is Cogmap. Cogmap is a wiki that houses organizational charts for thousands of companies. Like other wiki’s this tool is a collaborative effort where individuals can add information. It is a fairly new website so the amount of information ...

I read a riotously funny article the other day, about how state laws banning texting or talking on cell phones while driving have no effect whatsoever on the number of crashes. What’s so funny about that? What’s so funny is the inability of the “experts” to come up with an explanation for the data. One said that the data doesn’t ...

A consulting colleague of mine recently observed that she believes too many lawyers are far behind the times; she said they don’t use the Internet for research or marketing and many don’t even use e-mail. Of course, few if any professions are more tradition-bound than the law and change can come slowly to lawyers. Yet by the same token, some ...