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Given the weakness of the case for misrepresentation, the case may not be the best candidate for review in the Supreme Court. However, whether sec 103.43 can remain limited to manual laborers, as the court held, without violating the Equal ...

“The majority’s result is unnecessary, and unfortunate for Wisconsin farmers and others who sell commodities to organizations capable of litigating until the cows come home.” Hon. Charles P. Dykman In dissent An arbitrator can award attorney fees and punitive damages, ...

Lawyers representing clients in federal criminal cases need to be looking at factors beyond those listed in the federal guidelines when addressing the court about sentencing. That’s one of the important lessons following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent sentencing-related decisions. ...

“It would be unrealistic to require that an employee be authorized to ‘bargain’ about the terms of a release of liability, and it would be unrealistic that an owner always be present at the facility.” Hon. Patience D. Roggensack, Concurring ...

In the wake of this decision, all exculpatory clauses in use should be reviewed. However, it is not clear whether it is even possible to draft an enforceable clause after this decision. Two of the deficiencies of the clause in ...

The decision remands the case to the circuit court to determine whether actual authority was granted to Levy by Mansfield, but the attorneys will likely find little guidance as to what constitutes actual authority. While the court found no shortage ...

What the court held Case: Rusk County Department of Health and Human Services v. Thorson, No. 04-2267. Issue: Can a court order a father to pay a mother’s lying-in expenses, even though he has no ability to pay? Holding: No. ...

In the aftermath of this decision, Wisconsin courts should expect a deluge of motions for modification of paternity orders by fathers ordered to pay mothers’ lying-in expenses. For decades, orders such as the one in the case at bar have ...

Lawyers can expect to find an additional fee of $50 on their annual dues statements starting this year. The state Supreme Court approved a petition last week that would use the assessment to help fund civil legal services for the ...

State Bar Motion The motion approved Friday by the State Bar Board of Governors by a 24-17 vote states: “The State Bar of Wisconsin officers are directed to obtain counsel and obtain a legal opinion from said counsel as to ...

What the court held Case: U.S. v. Booker, Nos. 04-104 & 04-105. Issue: Are the federal sentencing guidelines constitutional? If not, what is the remedy? Holding: No. The guidelines are mandatory, and therefore violate the Sixth Amendment right to a ...

Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the case resulted in two separate lead opinions, and four dissents, the case leaves much uncertainty. On the issue of retroactivity, the court states that courts should consider whether the issue was ...

Organization - attainable goal or futile exercise?

“Because Wis. Stat. Sec. 970.04 lays out the only scenario in which the legislature has recognized a statutory right to a second preliminary examination on the same charge, we reject Gillespie’s contention that the circuit court erred in denying his ...

The decision that a defendant can only obtain a review of a preliminary hearing on the record certainly comports with what everyone has always assumed was the law, or at least since State ex rel. Dowe v. Circuit Court for ...

What the court held Case: Winniczek v. Nagelberg, No. 04-2106. Issue: Does the "actual innocence" rule preclude an action by a guilty criminal defendant against his attorney for breach of contract? Holding: No. The rule only bars actions for legal ...

Technically, this case is an application of Illinois state law, and has no direct bearing in Wisconsin. Nevertheless, as both states have the actual innocence rule, criminal defense attorneys and their insurers should be aware of it. Wisconsin expressly adopted ...

Hon. Ann Walsh Bradley All three appellate seats up for election this April will remain in the incumbents’ hands absent significant write-in campaigns. Following last week’s deadline for filing nomination papers, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley and judges Gregory A. Peterson ...

Parties adversely affected by the decision in this case should nevertheless preserve objections for potential review in the Supreme Court. Although the decision may not contradict any binding case law, neither does any precedent require the holding, and the holding ...

Hon. Ralph Adam Fine A default judgment does not preclude the defendant from seeking contribution from other defendants, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held on Dec. 28. SIVA Truck Leasing leased a van to Milwaukee Careers Cooperative (MCC) for use ...

What the court held Case: Munro v. Golden Rule Ins. Co., No. 04-1396 Issue: Can a bad faith case be brought against an insurer in federal court where the damages and attorney’s fees combined are less than $7,500? Holding: No. ...

The decision suffers from several defects: poor math, misrepresentation of Seventh Circuit precedent, and ignorance of Wisconsin law. First, the court states that, in order to meet the jurisdictional requirement, the jury’s punitive damage award would have to be "more ...

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals held on Dec. 30 that a defendant may be granted an extension to file a notice of intent to pursue postconviction relief, notwithstanding State v. Evans, 2004 WI 84, 273 Wis. 2d 192, 682 N.W.2d ...

From the standpoint of efficiency, the court’s holding is clearly preferable to the alternative, and the attendant procedural complications noted by the court. Allowing a simple extension also avoids the situation in the Seventh Circuit case, Betts v. Litscher, 241 ...

Finding Free Canadian Legal Materials on the Internet

The Seventh Circuit held on Dec. 23 that an insurer that issued a policy for advertising injury has no duty to defend a class action filed on behalf of all recipients of the insured’s junk faxes. Capital Associates of Jackson ...

Technically, the decision has no bearing on any case in Wisconsin, as it is nominally an application of Illinois insurance law. Nevertheless, the decision cannot be ignored by any attorney facing this issue. The court even wrote, "Readers doubtless will ...

"In this case, the lawyers were not sending dunning ‘communications’ to Mr. Thomas. Instead, they were doing what lawyers traditionally do — filing a lawsuit in state court on behalf of their client." Hon. Terence T. Evans in dissent A ...

That the majority opinion is erroneous is amply demonstrated by the dissent of Judge Evans, and further elaboration is unnecessary. Nevertheless, the decision of the en banc majority represents a vast improvement upon the original decision of the majority in ...

Increasingly, the domestic practice of the law requires a basic knowledge of international law and, as a result, international and foreign legal research. More often in practice today, international legal issues arise and are interwoven with subjects of domestic law, ...