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"Margaret has been stalking these people for a decade and has ignored previous orders to cease and desist. She has expressed no remorse and exhibits no inclination to discontinue her dangerous fixation on the people she torments. Banishment from Walworth County was proper because it may finally keep the tormentor at bay." Judge Richard S. Brown Wisconsin Court of Appeals ...

The decision creates a narrow exception between the general rule that limits recovery of attorney’s fees to token amounts, and the usual exceptions that permit "reasonable attorney’s fees." Attorney fees are governed by Section 814.04, which provides in relevant part: "Except as provided in secs. 93.20, 100. 30(5m), 106.50(6)(i) and (6m)(a), 115.80(9), 281.36(2)(b)1., 767.33(4)(d), 769.313, 814.025, 814.245, 895.035(4), 895.10(3), 895.75(3), ...

Contingency agreement precludes reasonable attorney fees award

"The law is best developed when you have that natural tension that is created when you have a healthy diversity of thought at the table. The best decisions are promulgated that way." Paul B. Higginbotham As Dane County Circuit Court Judge Paul B. Higginbotham enters the state Supreme Court race, he describes himself as the best candidate to bring balance ...

Lynn Laufenberg In the case of Landis v. Physicians Insurance Co., 2001 WI 86, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that the phrase, "any applicable statute of limitation," as used by the legislature in the medical malpractice statutes, referred to statutes of repose, as well as statutes of limitation. Now the court must decide whether Landis functionally overruled Leverence v. United ...

The legislature’s lack of any distinction between the male and female breast in sec. 939.22(19), combined with the numerous instances in which the legislature did so distinguish in other statutes, provides strong support for the court’s ultimate conclusion that the legislature did not intend any distinction in the sexual assault statute. Nevertheless, the court’s initial determination that the statute is ...

Hon. Daniel P. Anderson The touching of a boy’s chest, as well as a girl’s, is "sexual contact" within the meaning of sec. 948.02(2), because sec. 939.22(19) does not distinguish between the two in defining "intimate parts," the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held on Jan. 8. Michael J. Forster, a camp counselor, was charged with second-degree sexual assault of a ...

Last week, the Wisconsin Law Journal presented the first of a two-part series looking at the billing issues which lawyers face. WLJ brought representatives of six law practices together to discuss the topic of billing during a roundtable discussion on Dec. 11, 2002. The panelists ranged from solo practitioners to the managing partner of a firm with more than 175 ...

Given the plain language of the statute, as well as the legislative history, the court could not have reached any other decision than it did. Nevertheless, the court squandered a valuable opportunity to discuss the incongruence of sec. 81.17 with modern tort law. The precursor statutes to sec. 81.17 were created as an exception to the general rule of total ...

"Since the jury found Keller liable, he is primarily liable and consequently, the City may not be held to pay the remaining amount of the jury award. Since Keller was dismissed from the action, no judgment can be rendered against Keller, and no execution can issue and be returned unsatisfied." Justice N. Patrick Crooks Wisconsin Supreme Court When both a ...

Last month, the Wisconsin Law Journal brought representatives of six law practices together to discuss the topic of billing issues. The panelists ranged from solo practitioners to the managing partner of a firm with more than 175 attorneys. Editor Tony Anderson moderated the discussion on Dec. 11, 2002, which covered issues from the elements of effective bills, to dealing with ...

The Seventh Circuit has long suggested in dicta that exclusion of evidence is not required for violations of the knock-and-announce rule, but until now, it has been merely that — dicta. In U.S. v. Espinoza, 256 F.3d 718 (7th Cir. 2001), for example, the court held that suppression was not required, where the police did knock, but waited too short ...

Hon. Richard A. Posner The Seventh Circuit on Dec. 31 held that the exclusionary rule does not require suppression of evidence seized after the police violated the knock-and-announce rule. Two unidentified informants reported to police in Indiana that drugs were being dealt from a home. The police lawfully searched the garbage from the house, finding evidence of marijuana use, but ...

The month-long holiday season is over, your checkbook is feeling a bit tight, but you think it’s time to upgrade the technology at your law practice. Sheryn Bruehl and David Grove have several suggestions that attorneys should keep in mind as they contemplate a cost-effective approach to technology purchases. Bruehl is an attorney-technology speaker with the firm of Bruehl & ...

It’s a recipe for a rigorous case. A likeable plaintiff, is severely brain-injured, leaving his spouse emotionally and financially devastated; the incident at issue is a medical rarity; and the health care providers are honest, dedicated professionals. That’s the scenario lawyers Barrett J. Corneille and Colleen L. Meloy faced in a 1999 initial office conference with a Madison-area surgeon (who ...

Hon. Shirley S. Abrahamson Under sec. 803.10(1)(a), service of a suggestion of death only upon the deceased plaintiff’s attorney is inadequate, where the defendant was the plaintiff’s son, and did not serve his two brothers, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held on Dec. 27. The statute provides, "If a party dies and the claim is not thereby extinguished, the court may ...

Needless to say, the guidance provided by the court will be far from clear to future parties when an opposing party dies. Very few cases will involve an intrafamily dispute in which it is abundantly clear that the party knows whom to serve, and how to find them. One would assume that, if the deceased party is married, service upon ...

Business where wood sale is incidental does not qualify

The decision has implications that are both very broad, and very narrow. The legal rules enunciated are arguably broad, because they apply not just to the exemption for logging equipment, but to all exemptions in sec. 70.111. For any taxpayer to obtain any similar exemption, it must show that the primary purpose of its business is one that the legislature ...

Donald J. Christl Revisions to the rules of professional responsibility and fee arbitration were considered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court at its administrative conference on Dec. 18, with the court issuing a broad mission statement to the ethics commission, and directing the arbitration commission to present a petition for voluntary, rather than mandatory, fee arbitration. Ethics 2000 In response to ...

Although an attorney may concede guilt on one count in a multi-count trial as a valid trial strategy to obtain acquittal on the remaining counts, the attorney may not do so without his client’s consent in opening arguments, the Seventh Circuit held on Dec. 16. Concession On July 31, 1999, Freeman Holman was arrested on his way to meet Joyce ...

The decision highlights the difference in the treatment of attorney concessions of guilt in the federal and state courts. Had Holman been charged in Wisconsin state courts, his attorney’s concession in the absence of consent would have required reversal per se. State of Wisconsin v. Gordon, 2002 WI App 53, 250 Wis.2d 702, 641 N.W.2d 183. It should be noted, ...

“The timing of these events is significant as upon completion of the medical studies, the coverage under the conditional insurance agreement would have come into effect subject only to the condition of insurability.” Paul J. Pytlik, Hills Legal Group Ltd. Waukesha The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide whether a conditional agreement for life insurance requires the insurance company to pay ...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is considering whether a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress can be brought in a medical malpractice case. The court has allowed parents to seek compensation for the negligent infliction of emotion distress in accident cases where they witness the suffering of their children at the time or in the immediate aftermath of the accident. ...

Thomas R. Streifender Everyone scoffs at Jerry Maguire when he unveils his grand mission statement. In the lesser-known Office Space, the movie’s twenty-something hero leads a revolt against his bosses, in part because they are constantly "cramming mission statements down my throat." Mission statements were great comic fodder for Hollywood in the 1990s. Does that mean they’re irrelevant to real-life ...

Hon. Margaret J. Vergeront A married man charged with sexual assault of a child cannot invoke the spousal privilege to prevent his spouse from testifying against him, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held on Dec. 12. The court concluded that the exception to the privilege found in sec. 905.03(3)(b) applies, because the crime, besides being a crime against a third ...

The initial reaction to the decision is that, whenever a married man is charged with a sex crime, he cannot invoke the spousal privilege to prevent his wife from testifying. The court’s repeated references to "sexual relations," and "sex crimes," generally, rather than the more specific "sexual intercourse" support this interpretation. However, the effect of the decision is not that ...

Hon. Stephen Breyer Whether a securities dispute was timely submitted for arbitration to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) is for the arbitrator to decide, rather than a court, the United States Supreme Court held on Dec. 10. At some time between 1986 and 1994, Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. (Dean Witter), recommended to its client, Karen Howsam, that she ...

The decision overturns the applicable law to the contrary in the Seventh Circuit, most recently applied in J.E. Liss & Co. v. Levin, 201 F.3d 848 (7th Cir. 2000). As a consequence of that, issues previously decided by the Seventh Circuit concerning arbitrability are now unsettled, rather than firmly established by precedent. Links U.S. Supreme Court Related Article Arbitrators should ...

Hon. Richard S. Brown Although a landlord cannot enforce a residential lease that contains an unlawful attorney’s fees provision, a tenant may, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held on Dec. 4. However, the court also held that, when a tenant seeks to prospectively enforce the lease, he reaffirms the lease and the landlord’s right to enforce it as well. Lease ...