A majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court justices expanded the contours of the community-caretaker exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement even while embarrassing themselves through the way they reached their decision.

Tagged with: Bench Blog community caretaker function Fourth Amendment Jean DiMotto

In a case involving suspected heroin abuse, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided a warrantless blood draw was justified primarily because heroin tends to dissipate rapidly in a person's bloodstream.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Daniel Bissett heroin Jean DiMotto State v. Parisi

The Court of Appeals has ruled that a Wisconsin resident cannot obtain long-arm jurisdiction over the Sydney Morning Herald without offending the Due Process Clause.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Richard Sankovitz Roderick Salfinger

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that a parking garage that lies beneath an apartment building and has locked entrances is not protected curtilage under the Fourth Amendment.

Tagged with: Ann Walsh Bradley Bench Blog Donald Hassin Fourth Amendment Jean DiMotto Lisa Neubauer Pat Roggensack Paul Reilly Wisconsin Supreme Court

An attorney’s recent representation of a defendant charged with child sexual assault was so ineffective that the defendant’s constitutional right to counsel was violated and his convictions reversed.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Ellen Brostrom Jean DiMotto Joan Kessler

The Court of Appeals has once again extended the application of Daubert standards in Wisconsin, this time to a social worker’s testimony in a case involving the sexual assault of a child.

Tagged with: Bench Blog David Reddy Jean DiMotto Paul Reilly

The Court of Appeals has affirmed that it's not only the rules of evidence that do not apply in criminal pretrial proceedings; equally inapplicable is the right of confrontation.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Confrontation Clause drunken driving Jean DiMotto Lisa Neubauer Mark Gundrum Paul Reilly

The Court of Appeals has rejected a disbarred attorney’s pro se bid to overturn his felony conviction for theft.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Jeffrey Conen Jeffrey Elverman Patricia Curley

The attorney for a same-sex couple recently tried unsuccessfully to use an adoption action to challenge the constitutionality of statutes related to artificial insemination and to the presumption of paternity stemming from marriage.

Tagged with: Bench Blog gay marriage Jean DiMotto Mark Gundrum

The District 2 Court of Appeals recently outdid itself for conciseness by issuing a five-page decision.

Tagged with: Bench Blog District 2 Court of Appeals Jean DiMotto Lisa Neubauer Paul Reilly

On the same day that Rebecca Bradley was appointed to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals released her first appellate opinion that has been recommended for publication.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Child Pornography Jean DiMotto Wisconsin Court of Appeals Wisconsin Supreme Court

In a case of reckless homicide by text messages, a defendant sought to suppress evidence of the messages themselves. The trial court denied his motion and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Kathryn Foster Lisa Neubauer

In a case that saw a woman injured while trying to pull her dog from the jaws of a pit bull, a judge’s unrequested jury instruction concerning the emergency doctrine and unrequested restructuring of the verdict form's damages section led to a remand for a new trial.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Lisa Stark

A medical-malpractice case — an area of litigation replete with expert testimony — recently spurred the Court of Appeals to examine how Daubert principles should be applied to medical experts.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Daubert Jean DiMotto

Can a jury consider the training and experience of a semi-trailer truck driver in determining his negligence? Is a commercially licensed truck driver held to higher standard of care when a semi-trailer is involved in a collision?

Tagged with: Bench Blog Brian Blanchard Jean DiMotto Pat Roggensack Wisconsin Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Court of Appeals in a decision that would have remanded a case to the circuit court in order to expose a drunken driver to a higher maximum sentence.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Brian Blanchard drunken driving Gary Sherman Jean DiMotto JoAnne Kloppenburg Patrick Crooks Wisconsin Supreme Court

When a mid-state newspaper made a full-court press for the release of employee notes that were taken down during a school district’s disciplinary investigation, the Court of Appeals took the opportunity to construe an exception to the public-records law.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Brian Blanchard Court of Appeals Jean DiMotto open records law

In her first opinion identifying her as chief justice, Pat Roggensack merely applied known law rather than establishing or construing new law. She nonetheless wrote for a unanimous court.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Pat Roggensack William Hanrahan

In a surprising decision delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state rules forbidding judicial candidates from personally asking donors for campaign money.

Tagged with: Antonin Scalia Bench Blog First Amendment Jean DiMotto U.S. Supreme Court

For the second time in as many years, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided a dog-sniffing case.

Tagged with: Bench Blog drug sniffing dog Florida v. Jardines Jean DiMotto

In keeping with last year’s legislative changes to the state’s other-acts evidence statute, the conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court took a recent case involving the sexual assault of a child as an occasion to liberalize its application of this sort of evidence.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Michael Gableman sexual assault Wisconsin Supreme Court

The Court of Appeals recently decided a Crawford issue in a murder trial. In so doing, it emphasized the importance of bringing in needed experts to testify.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Michael Hoover

The Court of Appeals has decided that expressing opinions is not whistleblowing. But what constitutes opinion and what constitutes whistleblowing?

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Juan Colas

In a rare unanimous decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court acted to protect a criminal defendant’s statutory right to peremptory substitution of judge.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Jon Counsell Thomas Flugaur Wisconsin Supreme Court

Internet advertising is commonplace. But what happens when the sale of advertised goods goes awry and an out-of-state advertiser is sued in Wisconsin?

Tagged with: 14th Amendment advertising Bench Blog Internet Jean DiMotto Mark Gundrum Paul Malloy

In a pair of decisions released on the same day, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided that manure and septage are pollutants at the point they contaminate wells.

Tagged with: Bench Blog DNR Jean DiMotto Wisconsin Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has declared the fundamental importance of appropriate service of process to the viability of a lawsuit.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Jean DiMotto Service of process Torts Wisconsin Court of Appeals

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has declared the fundamental importance of appropriate service of process to the viability of a lawsuit.

Tagged with: Bench Blog J. Mac Davis Jean DiMotto Richard Brown

The Bench Blog’s Santa asked Wisconsin Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges what they want in their appellate Christmas stockings.

Tagged with: Bench Blog Brian Blanchard Gary Sherman Jean DiMotto Kitty Brennan Lisa Stark Mark Gundrum Michael Hoover Patricia Curley Patrick Crooks Paul Reilly Wisconsin Supreme Court

The ferocity of an alcohol addiction is apparent in the case of Frank Zdzieblowski, a 73-year-old Portage County man who was charged with operating a motor vehicle with a prohibited blood alcohol concentration as a sixth offense less than five months after he was charged with fifth offense intoxicated driving.

Tagged with: Bench Blog District 4 Court of Appeals drunken driving Jean DiMotto JoAnne Kloppenburg Thomas Flugaur