Features

• • Table of Contents
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  • The 640-page directory contains attorney alphabetical and geographical rosters; Wisconsin law firms; listings of federal, state, and tribal courts, including court personnel; directory of vendors providing law-related services; contact information for the State Bar of Wisconsin and other law-related organizations; and Lawyer-to-Lawyer Directory.

Features

• • Walk in 'Our' Shoes: Why Docs Avoid Lawyers
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  • Whether you represent plaintiffs or defendants in personal injury cases, understanding doctors' concerns, and refining your communications with them, will improve the doctor-lawyer relationship.
• • The Ancient-Document Rule: Ancient Is Not as Old as You Think
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  • Unavailable witnesses or ones with holes in their memories need not be barriers to the admission into evidence of documents more than 20 years old. These documents may be admitted using the ancient-document evidence rule instead.
• • Nullification: A Jury's 'Secret' Power
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  • Notorious trials draw scorn for jurors who decide the fate of criminal defendants. But jurors often are restricted in their deliberations; they are not told of their traditional power to decide both the facts and the justness of the law as applied in a particular case.

Features

• • Untying the Gordian Knot: Law Firm Compensation
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  • Stymied, Alexander the Great “untied” the impossible Gordian knot by severing it with his sword. Although law firm compensation can be one of the most difficult puzzles in law firm management, solving it need not invite similar rash action. This article reviews the most common compensation systems, how each of them rewards specific behavior patterns, and why effective compensation systems must be aligned with a law firm’s culture and values.
• • Lessons from Casper: Expanded Recovery for Injured Litigants
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  • In Casper, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overruled existing state law to allow injured litigants to bring direct suits in Wisconsin courts against out-of-state insurance companies for a loss or injury that occurred in Wisconsin. The court also clarified considerations in seeking default judgments and confirmed that corporate officers may be held personally liable for their negligent acts.
• • Viewpoint: Wisconsin's Undeveloped Surrogacy Law
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  • Parties to surrogate-parenting arrangements typically enter into agreements that spell out each party’s expectations and responsibilities. However, Wisconsin law is insufficiently developed to ensure adequate enforcement of such agreements.

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Features

• • Catch It While You Can: Finding and Preserving Electronic Evidence
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  • Evidence stored on computers and other electronic devices plays a role in an increasing number of client matters. Learn the steps you and a computer forensics examiner should take to quickly and completely capture such information.
• • Determining 'Pecuniary Loss'
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  • Persons who violate DATCP orders regulating methods of business competition and trade practices, face stiff civil penalties under Wis. Stat. section 100.20(5), including twice the amount of any pecuniary loss. Determining what is a pecuniary loss is critical.

Features

• • Prosecuting False Political Speech
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  • Three misdemeanor statutes may be used against people who make intentionally false statements in political campaigns. The statutes prohibit false representations affecting elections, criminal defamation, and giving false information for publication. Learn how the Wisconsin statutes have been used – and misused – over the past two decades.
• • Retaliation: New Developments in State and Federal Employment Law
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  • Recent state and federal decisions will make it easier for employees to prove retaliation cases while making it harder for employers to define, and therefore avoid, retaliatory conduct. Attorneys must understand the changes to effectively advise their clients.
• • The ADAAA: Key Changes to Disability Law
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  • In the ADAAA, Congress amended federal disability-discrimination law to restore a breadth of coverage under the ADA. Federal courts have since made initial findings of disability in a broad spectrum of discrimination cases in which they once would have refused to do so. Here is a look at the key changes.
• • "Equal Voice" Confirmed: Worker's Comp Carriers Can Compel Settlement
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  • Worker's compensation carriers can seek to compel settlement of a plaintiff's bodily injury lawsuit over the injured-plaintiff's objections. In its decisions, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals emphasized the circuit court's authority to resolve settlement-related disagreements between insurers and injured parties.

Features

• • Greenwash: Overselling a Product's 'Greenness'
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  • Businesses and consumers eager to sell or buy environmentally friendly products should know that not every representation accurately conveys the "greenness" of the product.
• • Valuing Retirement Benefits in Divorce
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  • Married couples' retirement plans may be among their most valuable and complicated assets. Appraising plan values correctly for a fair division at divorce is a challenge many attorneys do not feel qualified to undertake. This overview of retirement plans will give attorneys a deeper understanding of clients' assets.
• • Viewpoint: Making Wisconsin's Child Welfare Law Work
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  • Too often, the child welfare system focuses on false issues, engenders adversarial rather than collaborative relationships, and delays addressing the real issues: timely resolving the safety and permanency issues crucial to a child's welfare. We must refocus the system for the sake of children and their families.

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Features

• • Wisconsin’s Concealed Carry Law: Protecting Persons and Property
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  • Here is an in-depth look at the concealed carry law's provisions, how it applies in various property contexts, and practical ramifications and potential legal issues arising from the law's enactment.
• • Form I-9: Verifying Employment Eligibility - Can I Go Too Far?
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  • Wisconsin's "Personal Protection Act" establishes a licensure system for the concealed carry of weapons and sets guidelines for property owners, businesses, and employers that may interact with license holders. Here is an in-depth look at the law's provisions, how it applies in various property contexts, and practical ramifications and potential legal issues rising from the law's enactment.
• • E-Verify: Electronic System to Confirm Employment Eligibility
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  • Wisconsin companies licensed in Arizona or 16 other states that mandate the use of the federal E-Verify electronic system to confirm employment eligibility of new employees must use the program in those jurisdictions.
• • The Gay Divorcée: When Same-Sex Marriages Dissolve in Wisconsin
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  • Marriages and marriage-like relationships between same-sex individuals are becoming more common, but the widespread lack of legal sanction for same-sex marriage means that gay and lesbian individuals must act cautiously when separating their relationship bonds.

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Features

• • SOS: Defendants' Right to Counsel
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  • In Montejo, the U.S. Supreme Court ruptured long-settled law concerning interrogation of criminal defendants. The Wisconsin Supreme Court extended a lifeline to a defendant affected by the change but left unclear the durability of this means of legal recourse for future accused individuals.
• • Pace of Change: Are Law Schools Keeping Up?
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  • Lawyers operate in an increasingly complex, fast-changing world, as do the educational institutions that prepare law students to become practicing attorneys. Are law schools keeping up?
• • New Law Eases Requirements: Navigable Waterway Permits
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  • 2011 Wisconsin Act 167 changes the DNR’s permitting authority and requirements for navigable waterway permits. Effective Sept. 1, 2012, the new law eases requirements for private entities seeking to fill navigable waterways by shortening timelines, removing public participation requirements, and creating presumptive approvals. The changes have significant implications for the state’s administration of the public trust doctrine.

Features

• • Sports and the Law:
    A National Niche and a Baseball Deal to Remember
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  • Beneath America's favorite pastime lives a complex legal and business world. With insight from sports industry lawyers Mary K. Braza and Kevin Schulz, follow the purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers for a record $2.15 billion – a deal they helped bring about – and the rise to prominence of Foley & Lardner in sports law.
• • Skeletons in the Closet? Minimizing the Risks of Background Checking
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  • Careful checking of job applicants' backgrounds can reduce the likelihood of hiring individuals whose past actions might foreshadow future negative behavior. Learn the best ways to legally and effectively find out more about potential employees.
• • Medicare's Stakes in PI Settlements
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  • In light of the ongoing debate on liability Medicare set-asides, litigators must be alert to the possibility that personal-injury claim proceeds of Medicare beneficiaries might be subject to claims of the federal government.

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Features

• • Boosting Creative Competition: America Invents Act
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  • Significant reforms to U.S. patent laws move from a "first-to-invent" to a "first-inventor-to-file" system, create new proceedings for challenging patents, and implement litigation reforms, with the goal of creating millions of jobs and securing the United States' position as an innovative-technology leader.
• • E-Discovery: Who Pays?
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  • Wisconsin courts have not expressly addressed cost shifting involving discovery of electronically stored information. Recent rule amendments provide an ad hoc balancing test, which should be supported by common-sense efforts to reach agreements with opposing counsel in these situations.
• • Determining Reasonable Attorney Fees
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  • Many Wisconsin statutes make it possible for prevailing parties to recover attorney fees from the opposing side. Recent changes, however, presumptively cap reasonable attorney fees at not more than three times the damages awarded and list factors a court must assess when making the award. Here is a look at how courts may interpret and apply the law.

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Features

• • Annual Review: Top 9 Recent Wisconsin Federal Court Decisions
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  • The article looks at nine significant Wisconsin federal court decisions interpreting Wisconsin law in 2011-12, encompassing common-law claims and statutory interpretations.
• • Top 12 2011-2012 Wisconsin Supreme Court Decisions
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  • The article highlights 12 significant decisions issued by the Wisconsin Supreme Court during its 2011-12 term.
• • Too Late? Interests of Justice Trump Default Judgments
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  • In Miller and Casper, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reinforced Wisconsin's traditional support of allowing litigants their day in court by discouraging granting of default judgments when a defendant fails to serve a timely answer or moves for leave to file a late answer.
• • Viewpoint: LLCs: Exempt from Common-law Fiduciary Duties?
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  • LLCs are now the most common business form in Wisconsin, but the statutes and case law are silent on whether LLCs, like corporations and other businesses, are subject to common-law fiduciary duties.

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Features

• • Church & State: Blurring the Lines
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  • In Doe v. Elmbrook School District, a case that demonstrates how intertwined church and state legally may be, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals en banc determined that holding a public high school ceremony at a church impermissibly blurred the church-state line.
• • Who is a Religious or Ministerial Employee?
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  • The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent adoption of the “ministerial exception” doctrine portends increasing difficulty for individuals attempting to challenge employment-related decisions of religious institutions. One challenge is determining who is a “religious person” under the First Amendment.
• • Coverage Delayed, Coverage Denied
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  • The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently held that insurers have a right to delay in denying coverage. Policyholders should scrutinize their insurance coverage, even after an insurer agrees to defend, particularly with suits alleging possible uncovered claims.