Slander and libel case goes to high court
The state Supreme Court will take up Vince Biskupic’s libel and slander case against eight defendants, including a northern Wisconsin newspaper, for an article that ran 2004. Biskupic, who ran for state attorney general in 2002, filed a lawsuit in 2005 against the Shawano Leader, a reporter for the newspaper, a story source and five […]
What do you think?
The Wisconsin Court System is seeking feedback on its Web site. They are asking visitors what they think of the site. A quick six-question survey posted on the Wisconsin Court’s Web site attempts to get feedback on how satisfied visitors are with the site, what they like, and what they’d like to see. A posting […]
Supreme Court set to decide tradename, noncompete case
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has announced that it will release a decision tomorrow in a case that has wrestled with a number of issues related to violation of a noncompete clause and tradename infringement. Link In 2000, M. Scott Statz and Steven Statz purchased a pier and boatlift installation business called D.L. Anderson’s Lakeside Leisure […]
Local officials get passing grade for FOI response
Back in school, a 70 Percent score on an exam was seen as passing. The teacher never identified it as “excellent” or “good.” Rather, papers and exams in the 70th percentile frequently bore the word “average.” So it could be said that when it comes to responding to requests for public information, Wisconsin gets a […]
Weird Wisconsin Laws
When it comes to Wisconsin statutes and local ordinances, there are many things they didn’t teach you in law school. Fortunately, Mark Toth, chief legal counsel of Manpower North America, has pulled together a number of the quirkier laws on his blog.However, he tossed in one “fake” law just to keep folks on their toes. […]
Expanded Judges Directory available here
For the past seven years, Wisconsin Law Journal has surveyed judges in specific locations around the state, such as Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Dane counties, as part of our annual Judges Directory. This year, with the help of the Director of State Courts office and scores of judges who answered our survey, we undertook the ambitious […]
Lifting the artificial veil
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has taken an important step in lifting the artificial veil that has existed since the state Court of Appeals was created 30 years ago. With a 6-1 vote, the justices have decided to allow lawyers to cite unpublished Court of Appeals decisions. For three decades, lawyers who found unpublished Court of […]
Unchecked power and secrecy should not be part of the solution
As Congress goes back and forth with the Bush Administration over a $700 billion plan to aid troubled Wall Street financial firms, legislators need to pay close attention to part of the emergency legislation that would unduly expand the powers of the executive branch. A Wall Street Journal blog recently posted a draft of the […]
Judge J. Mac Davis gets the nod from President Bush
The field of candidates to succeed U.S. District Judge John Shabaz has gone from 16 to 5 to one. This week, President Bush nominated Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge J. Mac Davis to the Western District of Wisconsin bench. Now it’s up to the U.S. Senate to decide whether to confirm the 3rd District’s chief […]
Do we support those the justice system fails?
Driving around the other day, I was listening to a news story on the radio about the lack of support exonerated inmates receive in Michigan once they are released from prison. I was struck by the stories of several individuals who were released and left to languish, despite the fact that they had spent as […]
Is there a solution?
Fourteen years ago, I received the unimaginable phone call in the middle of the night. A voice I did not recognize was telling me that my family had been in an accident with a drunken driver. He said my 37-year-old brother was dead and that my father, 57, was not expected to make it. He […]
U.S. Supreme Court ideological review
Although Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will continue releasing decisions into July, the U.S. Supreme Court has wrapped up its 2007-08 term. Many of the significant decisions released in the last few weeks were the result of 5-4 decisions along strong ideological lines with Justice Kennedy serving as the key vote. National Public Radio’s legal affairs analyst […]
Legal News
- Milwaukee Police investigating fatal downtown crash
- Milwaukee drops security personnel ordinance
- Wisconsin Supreme Court tacks on additional months to already suspended lawyer
- Supreme Court: Abortion protester’s First Amendment rights violated
- These doctors were censured. Wisconsin’s prisons hired them anyway
- Ruling reinstates lawsuit over ‘Black Lives Matter’ school posters
- Wisconsin Supreme Court to consider whether 175-year-old law bans abortion
- Wisconsin man facing bestiality and felony bail jumping charges
- Waukesha County woman indicted in National Health Care Fraud Law Enforcement Action
- Man sentenced to 15 months for fraud involving luxury vehicles
- Wisconsin Department of Justice Fire Marshal investigating fire that killed six
- Ozaukee County first responders save family of three, father and son on Milwaukee River
Case Digests
- Termination of Parental Rights
- First Amendment Rights
- Termination of Parental Rights
- Late Filing
- Real Estate-Attorney Fees
- Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
- Variance-Interpretation of Zoning Ordinances
- Sentencing
- Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause-Jury Instructions
- Unlawful Collection Practices-Evidence
- Sentencing-Vindictiveness
- Prisoner Grievances-Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies