State Bar of Wisconsin

Wisconsin Lawyer Policies

• Letters to the Editor
• Advertising
• Endnotes
• Guidelines for Avoiding Common Citation and Style Problems
• Endnotes: General Citation Rules
• State Bar Newsletter Editorial Policy
• State Bar Newsletter Advertising Policy
• Governor's Inserts

The Wisconsin Lawyer provides State Bar of Wisconsin members with information that directly aids and improves their practice and the delivery of legal services to their clients. The magazine publishes articles on changes in the law, explores law-related trends and developments, and provides a forum for expressing ideas, concerns, and opinions that affect the practice of law in Wisconsin. In addition, the magazine includes human-interest articles about how lawyers practice law or profiles about lawyers who are interesting beyond the practice of law.

How-to, practical articles of general appeal are preferred over theoretical articles. Articles discussing developments in Wisconsin law are preferred over articles focusing on federal law. The content of the Wisconsin Lawyer is determined by the publications director, in consultation with the Communications Committee, which serves as the Wisconsin Lawyer Editorial Board.

Letters to the Editor

The Wisconsin Lawyer Letters to the Editor column provides a forum for members to express ideas, concerns, and opinions on any law-related subject. Generally, letters expressing opinions about the State Bar of Wisconsin and its activities will be published in the Members' Perspective column of the State Bar Newsletter, which focuses on association activities and policies.

The Wisconsin Lawyer publishes as many letters in each issue as space permits, giving priority to letters written in response to material previously published in the Wisconsin Lawyer. Limit letters to 500 words. Letters must include the writer's full name, address, telephone number, and signature. Requests to publish anonymous letters will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Letters may be edited for content, length, and clarity. Editorial staff may limit the number of letters published on a single topic, choosing letters that provide differing perspectives. Authors, editorial staff or other State Bar representatives may respond to letters to clarify misinformation, provide related background, or add another perspective.

Letters responding to previously published letters and to others' views should address the issues, and not be a personal attack on others. Letters endorsing political candidates cannot be accepted. Letters deemed to be defamatory or in poor taste will not be published.

Mail letters to Letters to the Editor, Wisconsin Lawyer, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158.

Advertising

Although the Wisconsin Lawyer reserves the right to reject any advertisement for any reason, its acceptance of advertising does not constitute an endorsement of any advertiser or any advertiser's message. It is the practice of the Wisconsin Lawyer to accept advertising on any subject and for any product or service which is not illegal.

The Wisconsin Lawyer may require modification of, or reject, advertising which in the judgment of its staff creates an unacceptable risk of civil or criminal liability for the Wisconsin Lawyer, violates the Wisconsin Rules of Professional Conduct, or whose embodiment is in bad taste. Requests for donated or discounted advertising space must be made in writing to the Communications Committee's Advertising Subcommittee.

The staff shall require payment in advance for all political advertising and may require payment in advance from any other advertiser. Any person aggrieved by a staff decision under this policy may seek review by the Communications Committee's Advertising Subcommittee, whose decision shall be final.

Endnotes

The Wisconsin Lawyer is a professional journal, not a law review or a court document. As such, the Wisconsin Lawyer has established stylistic preferences to which authors should adhere. Note that some endnote stylistic preferences differ from the Bluebook and courts' preferences for court documents.

Use endnotes sparingly and limit them to citations only. All other endnotes likely will be cut from the article. Include endnotes where needed to direct the reader to a source, but not after every sentence. For example, in an extensive discussion of a particular statute, do not include an endnote to reflect every statutory subsection referenced.

Place endnotes at the end of the article. Do not include citations in the text. Include a case name in the article text only where necessary for clarity, or where the case is the topic of the article.

Limit endnotes to citations. If the material must be included, work it into the text. If it cannot be worked into the text, it probably should not be included. Or, use a sidebar: a box with related material that is run alongside the article.

Follow the standard citation rules outlined in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, as modified by the Wisconsin Supreme Court (see below). Use correct spacing, punctuation, capitalization, and type styles (e.g., italics, Roman), except do not use all caps. Where large and small capitalization is indicated in The Bluebook, substitute regular Roman type. Check the most recent edition of The Bluebook for rule changes.

Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases decided after Jan. 1, 2000, should include their public domain citation.

Neither the Bar staff nor the editorial board members will verify citations. You are responsible for substantive and technical accuracy, so check citations carefully.

Guidelines for Avoiding Common Citation and Style Problems

Some guidelines for avoiding common citation and style problems follow, with the appropriate Bluebook rule noted in parentheses.

• Include full name (first name, middle initial, and last name) for the author of a book or article. (Rule 15.1)
  
  
• Never use supra or hereinafter to refer to a case, constitution, or statute, unless the name is extremely long. (Rule 4.2)
  
  
• Do not use section symbols (§) in the article text, unless you are referring to a federal statute. The format for referring to a statute in text is Wisconsin Statutes section 123.45, Wis. Stat. section 123.45, or section 123.45 of the Wisconsin Statutes. Later references may be to section 123.45. Use the section symbol only in endnotes. (Rules 3.4, 6.2(b), 12.9)
  
  
• Tab, but do not indent lengthy quotations. Use quotation marks appropriately. (Deviates from Rule 5.1)
  
  
• Spell out numbers that begin sentences. Spell out zero to nine in text and in endnotes. (Deviates from Rule 6.2)

Endnotes: General Citation Rules

Follow the general rules below for endnote citations. For a more comprehensive summary of The Bluebooks rules, see the Wisconsin Guide to Citation (State Bar of Wisconsin 2000).

Cases (Rule 10)

General Rule for Case Cites: Generally, close up adjacent single capitals. Note that single-letter abbreviations that abbreviate an entity are set off with a space. E.g., Boston College Law Review is B.C. L. Rev. not B.C.L. Rev. (Rule 6.1(a)) Numbers such as 2d and 3d are considered single capitals, so they also are closed up if they follow another single capital. Abbreviations of two or more letters must have a space on either side (or parentheses if appropriate).

Examples:

• Wis. 2d (space) (Ct. App. 1993) (space)
• N.W.2d (no space) U.S. (no space)
• S. Ct. (space) L. Ed. 2d (spaces)
• F.2d (no space) (7th Cir. 1993) (space)
• F. Supp. (space) (S.D.N.Y. 1987) (no spaces)
• (D. Maine 1986) (space) N.L.R.B. (no spaces)
• (N.D. Ill. 1974) (no space between N.D.; space before Ill.)

Special Notes: When the citation is to the N.L.R.B. reporter, periods are used with no spaces between letters: 39 N.L.R.B. 1309. But when the NLRB is a party included in the case name, no periods or spaces are used between the letters: Anderson-Jones Co., Inc. v. NLRB, 956 F.2d 1234 (7th Cir. 1992)

The same principle applies whenever a party is widely known by an abbreviation (or acronym) consisting of initials: AT&T, NAACP, CBS, FBI, OSHA, DILHR. Where the abbreviation is not usually spoken as the name of the entity, such as saying New York for N.Y., the periods must be used in the citation part of the reference, but the name must be spelled out in the case name: New York Transit Authority v. Peters, 465 N.Y.2d 786, 656 N.E.2d 1234 (1978).

United States is never abbreviated in case names, but is abbreviated in the citation part: United States v. Smith, 245 U.S. 467 (1975).

Statutes (Rule 12 and Wisconsin Supreme Court Notice to Members of the Bar, 74 Wis. 2d xxxix (1976))

Wisconsin Statutes cited to Wisconsin courts: Sec. 234.56, Stats. This is the Wisconsin Lawyer stylistic preference for all citations to the Wisconsin Statutes, regardless of whether they are cited to Wisconsin or other courts.

Wisconsin Statutes cited to other courts:

• Wis. Stat. 234.45 (1992).

Federal Statutes:

• 42 U.S.C. 2000e

Wisconsin Administrative Code (Table T.1 at 215)

• Wis. Admin. Code IND 3.45 (Apr. 1992) - Note no period after the section initials. The date is found at the bottom of the page cited, and must be included in the cite.

Federal Regulations

• 20 C.F.R. 223.45(a) (1990).

State Bar Newsletter Editorial Policy

The Newsletter focuses on association activities and policies, including:

• actions of the Board of Governors;
  
  
• information on projects, programs, seminars, and products sponsored or produced by the State Bar of Wisconsin or any entity of the organization, including committees, sections, and the Wisconsin Law Foundation;
  
  
• brief letters (maximum of 500 words) from members exchanging opinions, concerns about the State Bar of Wisconsin and its activities. (Editorial staff may edit letters for content, length, and clarity or the number of letters written on a given topic as well as the number of letters from any individual correspondent.) Letters from nonmembers will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  
  
• pending and newly enacted legislation affecting the legal profession, particularly legislative matters on which the Board of Governors has taken a position.

The content of the Newsletter is determined by the publications director in consultation with other staff, including the executive director. The publications director will consider information submitted by other law-related organizations on a case-by-case, space-available basis, giving priority to items that are time-sensitive and are of interest to the majority of State Bar members.

Advertising

The Newsletter does not include commercial advertising because of the potential loss of the State Bar of Wisconsin's third-class bulk mailing permit.

Governor's Inserts

Board of Governors' members are encouraged to communicate actions of the board to their constituents through inserts in the Newsletter. Each district is allowed up to four inserts each. Each insert is a single sheet, printed on two sides and mailed only to members in that governor's district. (Mechanical specifications for inserts are available by contacting the publications director.)

Communications Committee