The budget repair bill included provisions that expand the coverage of restraining orders to include individuals who are in "dating relationships" and create a new evidentiary privilege that covers communications between domestic abuse victims and victim advocates and the victims' family members. These significant changes to Wisconsin's civil and criminal laws on domestic abuse pose challenges to practitioners and courts alike.

The separation of powers into three co-equal branches of government provides us with a system of checks and balances. But what happens when the branches collide? Which branch prevails? Read how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently made that determination in a case that weighed the powers of the executive and judicial branches.

In a postverdict review of punitive damages in the wake of Campbell and Trinity, the authors examine how to balance the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages and the reprehensibility of the defendant's underlying conduct in determining how much is too much.