News & Pubs Archive

A state Supreme Court majority (4-3) has issued an order that says Tony Evers, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is entitled to decline the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s representation and get his own lawyer in a pending case.

June 22, 2018 – The State Bar of Wisconsin’s 2018 Annual Meeting and Conference (AMC) in Lake Geneva was so hot fire alarms rang out yesterday as the rain came down outside, slightly delaying packed sessions. But the lawyers didn’t seem to mind.

Christopher Rogers, a third generation lawyer whose grandfather began practicing law in Wisconsin 100 years ago, in 1918, took the oath of office last evening to become the State Bar of Wisconsin’s 63rd president, starting July 1.

The State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Governors took a major step forward today in adopting policy positions on disparate and mass incarceration, setting a legislative priority as the State Bar leadership remains committed to the issue.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled (4-3) that the City of Madison’s construction of a pedestrian bridge over a major highway, blocking visibility of an existing billboard, was not a taking of property requiring just compensation.

Steven Delap twice eluded police on foot, but two officers finally chased him down and pushed open his residence door to arrest him. Recently, a unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court found no constitutional violations.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled (4-3) that wine distribution agreements are not intoxicating liquor dealerships subject to special provisions under the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law (WFDL).

The Wisconsin Legislature recently made sweeping changes to the rules of civil procedure that will affect your practice. Wonder how the fiscal and social costs of mass incarceration affect the state budget? Concerned about the compensation rate for private-bar lawyers appointed to represent indigent criminal defendants? The June Wisconsin Lawyer looks at these and other issues.

Owners of a vacation lake home in Hayward can rent it out to vacationers nightly or weekly, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled, despite a restricted covenant that prohibits “commercial activity” in the subdivision.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a dairy farm seeking to run a large-scale operation within the Town of Saratoga based on a building permit application the farm filed before the town rezoned the area to prohibit agricultural uses.

Deficiency for one is not deficiency for all, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled. That is, circuit courts may conclude that a lawyer’s deficient performance prejudiced only one of multiple convictions in a multiple-count trial, not all of them.

The State Bar welcomes 117 new Wisconsin lawyers, graduates of the U.W. Law School. They come from across state, the country, and the world – and are setting out to make it a better place.

When a circuit court dismisses a foreclosure action for borrower default, claim preclusion does not bar the lender from bringing a second foreclosure action for continuing default, the Wisconsin Supreme recently ruled in a unanimous (7-0) decision.

In two recent cases, the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Wisconsin Court of Appeals rejected challenges related to lifetime global positioning system (GPS) tracking of sex offenders in Wisconsin, which apply to some sex offenders by statute.

A commercial real estate agent argued that he was entitled to a $72,000 commission under a seller's listing contract because he found a buyer, even though the sale fell through. Recently, the Wisconsin Supreme Court disagreed.

They are the 147 new Wisconsin lawyers, Class of 2018 graduates of the Marquette University Law School. As one proud father said, these new lawyers are proof that “our profession is in very good hands in the future.”

With one justice on the sidelines, the Wisconsin Supreme Court split 3-3 on a case involving whether a mining company could disturb Native American effigy mounds surrounded by land the company owns, leaving a lower court decision in place.

This week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court raised the hourly rate paid to lawyers for court-appointed cases, from $70 to $100, but declined to take action regarding the $40 rate paid to private bar attorneys who take public defender cases.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled (5-2) that Wisconsin’s Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act does not control the outcome of a lawsuit alleging that a successor company is liable for the negligent handling of asbestos-containing products.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that a business liability policy covering a convenience store did not cover a negligent supervision claim arising from a physical altercation between the store’s security guard and a store customer.