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

On the day a state grant was to expire, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office learned that an additional $50,000 in funding will be provided for its witness protection program. According to lead investigator David Budde, the funding, which was ...

Release of prisoner not cause of his crimes

This past summer, a Milwaukee County drug case informant, who was the subject of attempted murder, was able to get protection thanks to an updated witness protection pilot program. Since Milwaukee’s previous program was abandoned in 2003 due to a ...

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler Jr. is going back to his alma mater – the University of Wisconsin Law School. The law school has announced that Butler has accepted a two-year appointment to its faculty. He originally ...

The state’s code of professional conduct for attorneys permits current Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to sue one of his current clients, the Government Accountability Board (GAB). But whether it’s a proper use of his power is yet to be ...

Milwaukee’s ’09 budget doesn’t include renovation money

A defendant who jumped bail can be forced to pay back the money his mother posted for him and forfeited. A Sept. 23 opinion from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals holds that the requirement can be made either as restitution, ...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court term for 2008-09 just began this month, and some important cases have already been heard or are scheduled to be heard soon. Torts A case which the court just granted certiorari in, but has not scheduled ...

You know you are a lawyer when someone tells you that you will get something for free, and your first reaction is to wonder whether there is a restraint of trade involved somewhere. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin State Bar ...

Attorney fees in civil rights cases should not be limited to the amount recovered by the plaintiff. At least, a Sept. 19 opinion by the Seventh Circuit, which doesn’t decide the fee issue definitively, says that doing so is “likely ...

Public-sector attorneys choose jobs for opportunities, not pay

Class action suit expected out of June flooding

Just a few months ago, Michelle M. Friedman recommended all attorneys at her Milwaukee firm, Davis & Kuelthau s.c., join LinkedIn, a popular online social networking Web site for professionals from various disciplines. To date, about 70 percent of them ...

Gerald O’Brien, senior partner and managing partner at Anderson, O’Brien, Skrenes & Golla in Stevens Point, says the firm is considering branding. He’s not sure what it’ll entail for the 15-lawyer firm, but his marketing firm says it’s something they ...

By a one-vote margin, the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Governors supported a petition to allow citation of unpublished opinions as a persuasive tool in litigation. But while 29 of the 46 board members in attendance at the Sept. ...

Parties contest evidence necessary to support trade name infringement award

At its September meeting, members of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Governors verbally expressed support for an independent judiciary and the current code of judicial conduct, but declined a more specific request by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen ...

Seventh Circuit limits Armed Career Criminal Act to intentional crimes

The odds of winning a job discrimination suit in federal court are against plaintiffs’ attorneys. According to statistical analysis conducted by two Cornell University Law School professors of federal records from 1979 to 2006, plaintiffs who brought job discrimination cases ...

When a defendant rejects a settlement offer, and the jury returns a higher verdict, simple interest is calculated, without compounding it from the time of the offer to the time of payment. On Sept. 16, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ...

Possible OWI changes could influence fate of Waukesha Courthouse

When Judge Jeffrey A. Kremers put in for the chief judge position in District 1, he knew exactly what season was about to begin, and it has nothing to do with Brett Favre or the Packers. During his first day ...

When Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy L. Bain took a leave of absence in late July, Judge Gregory E. Grau had no idea he would succeed his longtime colleague as chief judge in the 9th District. But on Sept. ...

While the Sept. 9 nomination of Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge J. Mac Davis by President Bush moved the state trial judge one step closer to a seat on the federal bench, he still needs to be confirmed by the ...

Community clinics bring legal advice to everyday life

On Aug. 28, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revised the Principles of Federal Prosecutions of Business Organizations, its guidelines for investigating and prosecuting businesses. This marks the continued evolution of the DOJ’s policies towards internal investigations conducted by ...

Attorneys representing non-citizens charged with criminal offenses need to inform their clients that they have the right to consular notification of their arrests under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention. A Sept. 9 opinion of the Seventh Circuit held that ...

For more than 45 years, the Dodge County Circuit Court has gotten by with three judges, but a state courts review of the county’s 2007 caseload indicates it needs a little more than five judges. Last month, the circuit court ...

Green building migrates toward mandatory

Lawyers spot project pitfalls in LEED certification