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

Brother who sold asset to defraud family court can’t get it back

Claim targets February piece about her relationship with McCain

Court rules secret videotaping violated her privacy

Police Chief Joe Szwarek is enjoying the new year. Thanks to a $142,000 grant from the state, Szwarek is able to sustain his five-person department on the Bad River Chippewa reservation for another year. “We would be out of business without it,” Szwarek said. The grant is part of a $700,000 state allotment for nine tribal programs recently awarded by ...

Boston — A new federal rating system has concluded that for-profit nursing homes are more likely to provide a lower standard of care than non-profit homes. The rating system, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Dec. 18, analyzed approximately 16,000 nursing homes and assigned them one to five stars based on such criteria as health inspections ...

State statutes only mandate that the Department of Commerce require fire sprinklers in multifamily buildings with 20 or more units. Nevertheless, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has upheld a regulation requiring sprinklers in all buildings with eight or more units. The Wisconsin Builders Association contended that the regulation exceeded the agency’s authority in passing the regulation, but the court found ...

Unconstitutional and vague are two of the reasons why a local business group is asking a judge to dismiss the pending paid sick leave ordinance in the city of Milwaukee. The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce Inc. (MMAC) filed suit against the city on Dec. 22 and also asked for a temporary injunction. The ordinance was passed into law by ...

Boston — Dealing with emotional clients is an occupational hazard for many lawyers, especially family law practitioners, and more recently for lawyers counseling individuals in financial distress amid the current crisis. “Clients are looking for their attorney to be a savior, and there’s a tremendous pull for the attorney to do something,” said Dr. Alex Yufik, an attorney and forensic ...

Two cases currently pending in Wisconsin courts — one in the Supreme Court and the other in Waukesha County Circuit Court — raise an interesting issue: whether disorderly conduct can be charged as a hate crime. In the case pending before the Supreme Court, three defendants were charged with disorderly conduct as a hate crime, based on allegations they called ...

Bar leaders prepare for possible plan to tax legal services

Boston — When it comes to dealing with “at-risk” lawyers, take action quickly — even if it’s one of the senior partners in your firm. That’s the advice of experts at a recent ABA audio conference about strategies for helping at-risk lawyers. Whether it’s a lawyer bullying staff, a senior partner with billing issues or an attorney struggling with substance ...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has voted to grant review in nine cases. The case numbers, issues (provided by the Office of the Clerk of Supreme Court), and counties of origin are listed below. To read the full records, go to the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office, Suite 215, Tenney Building, 110 E. Main St., Madison. 2008AP446-CR State v. Michael L. Popke ...

More than half of an agency grant expected to advance research and development of alternative court programs in Wisconsin will not be available in 2009. National philanthropic organization the JEHT Foundation recently announced that it will close its doors at the end of January because investor funds had been mismanaged by financial advisor Bernard L. Madoff. Madoff is charged with ...

Boston — Experts have been predicting the imminent demise of the billable hour for years. But the current economy may give many lawyers the final push towards trying some alternative billing methods. Chris Marston, the CEO of Exemplar Law Partners in Boston, operates strictly on a “value-based” billing system. “We sit down and have a conversation with clients about exactly ...

Diane S. Diel wasn’t sure what to make of it. She recently visited with some University of Wisconsin Law School students. She saw a lot of glum faces. “I asked, ‘What’s happening? Are you finding jobs? Are you all OK?’ And I only heard from one person,” said Diel, president of the State Bar of Wisconsin. “The only person willing ...

Seventh Circuit resolves lower court conflict over vehicle expense deduction

Single bond no bar to multiple charges

Steven A. Levine may have lost the battle, but the determined attorney said he could still win the war. An arbitrator ruled against Levine and two other attorneys who argued that the State Bar of Wisconsin’s expenditures on its latest public image campaign should qualify for the Keller dues rebate. However, arbitrator Christopher Honeyman did not rule on the broader ...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court took its first step in formally endorsing a plan to address the state’s ongoing problem of unavailable legal services for poor people. On Dec. 17, the court voted, 6-0, with Justice David T. Prosser Jr. abstaining, to create a nonprofit corporation designed to increase access to justice in the state. Although the justices were universally supportive ...

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion last week in Altria Group v. Good, Wisconsin consumers can plausibly sue tobacco companies under at least two different statutory provisions, sec. 100.20 and sec. 100.18. Section 100.20, entitled “Methods of competition and trade practices”, provides generally, “(1) Methods of competition in business and trade practices in business shall be fair. Unfair ...

Boston — In a decision that allows claims by smokers seeking billions of dollars in damages from tobacco companies to proceed, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Dec. 15 that state law claims that tobacco companies deceptively market “light” or “low tar” cigarettes are not preempted by federal law. The decision in Altria Group v. Good stems from a lawsuit filed ...

No. 1: Forward-thinking lawyers back up. OK, the pun is lame — but the idea is indispensable. “So much of your important information is now on your computer,” says attorney Jeff Krause, of Krause Practice Management in Watertown. “You need to be able to recover things quickly and easily.” No. 2: The best backup method is… whatever works for you. ...

At the two largest law firms in Wisconsin, the last month of the year can be busier than the first 11. But because firms the size of Foley & Lardner (310 attorneys) and Quarles & Brady (292) have teams of lawyers who work on calendar-sensitive issues like mergers or tax contracts, there is also time to deck the halls. \“There ...

Firms take different approaches to end-of-year business flow

A former associate in Foley & Lardner’s Chicago office will be allowed to proceed to trial on his claims that the firm terminated him after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, because of his religion and national origin. The Seventh Circuit on Dec. 15 reversed a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the firm, holding that a ...

When is an uninsured motor (UM) vehicle not an "uninsured motor vehicle" for purposes of automobile insurance? When even though the automobile is not insured, the negligent driver is insured under his own policy. Writing for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals on Dec. 4, Judge Margaret J. Vergeront concluded, "Section 632.32(4)(a) does not require coverage where, as here, the alleged ...

Court finds debt collector's add-on illegal

State Bar of Wisconsin leaders have no problem with giving foreign attorneys a chance to become licensed practitioners in the state. But short of passing the bar exam, members of the Board of Governors do not think foreign attorneys should be allowed to engage in any legal activities in Wisconsin. The board unanimously endorsed at its Dec. 5 meeting a ...

Washington – The U.S. Supreme Court seems primed to hand down a ruling giving the police some authority to pat down car passengers during traffic stops without running afoul of the Fourth Amendment. The case, Arizona v. Johnson, stems from a 2002 incident in which police stopped a car for a minor insurance infraction. During the stop, an officer noticed ...

Baltimore — The Rodgers Forge, Md. husband and wife accused in the starvation death of their 2-year-old son waived their rights to a jury trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court. John and Susan Griffin instead will have their cases heard by Judge Timothy J. Martin, who granted the waivers on Dec. 8 after the Griffins were each briefly questioned by ...