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April 22, 2026 – A statute immunizing health care professionals during the COVID-19 state of emergency did not violate the constitutional right to a jury trial, a unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court recently ruled in
Wren v. Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital Milwaukee, Inc. (2026 WI 11), barring a medical malpractice lawsuit from a stillborn childbirth. Because the Wisconsin Constitution “empowers the [L]egislature to alter or suspend particular common law causes of action,” the immunity statute suspended Savannah Wren’s

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Pandemic Doctor Immunity Statute Constitutional

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In 2024, we wrote about Bowie v. Settecase, No. 2022AP1561 (Wis. Ct. App. Dec. 12, 2023) (per curiam) (unpublished). There, the Court of Appeals deemed the defendant’s summary judgment argument waived because the case went to trial and “a party who proceeds to trial waives the right to appeal an order denying his or her earlier motion for summary judgment.” Id. ¶6. Our prior article explained that the cases the Court of Appeals cited to apply this waiver…
Continue Reading Update: The Ghost of Procedural Rules Past

The Indiana Court of Appeals (the “Court”) affirmed a trial court’s determination that a patient was gravely disabled—even though he initially sought care for a physical ailment. The Court held that the patient’s refusal of necessary treatment, combined with his lack of insight into both his medical and psychiatric conditions, satisfied the clear-and-convincing-evidence standard. In re Commitment of G.N., 2025 WL 3633080, No. 25A-MH-1576, at *1 (Ind. Ct. App. Dec. 15, 2025) (unpublished).
Background
In May 2025, G.N. presented…
Continue Reading Indiana Court of Appeals Affirms Finding of Grave Disability Despite Initial Admission for Foot Pain

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April 7, 2026 – A 12-year-old student deserved
Miranda protection for questioning in the tiny school resource officer’s (SRO) office and at an in-school suspension desk, a 4-3 Wisconsin Supreme Court majority held in

State v. K.R.C., 2026 WI 10. But everyone on the Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s finding of delinquency. The majority said it was harmless error. Other testimony sufficiently supported delinquency for fourth-degree sexual assault. “In sum, the [SRO’s] testimony about Kevin’s statements was

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Student in Custody at School, but Error Harmless

The Ninth Circuit has warned employers that introducing a mandatory arbitration agreement during active class litigation, particularly when done through poor or misleading communication, can invalidate the agreement entirely.

In Avery v. TEKsystems, decided January 28, 2026, the court affirmed a district court order refusing to enforce an arbitration policy introduced late in the lawsuit.

The court found that the communications used to roll it out were misleading, one-sided, and fundamentally subverted the class action process.
TEKsystems’s Arbitration Agreement…
Continue Reading Employers Beware: Courts Are Scrutinizing Mid-Lawsuit Arbitration Agreements

Under Wisconsin law, employees must first be the victim of identity theft or other concrete, imminent harm to have standing to sue employer for data breach. Mere risk of future data misuse is not enough to establish standing.

Business owners and executives are well aware of the risk of data breaches given the proliferation over the past decade or so. Many times we think of data breaches in terms of customer information only. What is often less pondered is

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Signals Limitations on Employer Liability for Employee Data Breaches

In a significant decision with implications for 340B enforcement and False Claims Act (“FCA”) whistleblower litigation, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the “Court”) held on March 17, 2026, that a health system (the “System”) may proceed with its qui tam action alleging that pharmaceutical manufacturers engaged in fraudulent price-inflation schemes under the 340B Drug Pricing Program (“340B”), in violation of the FCA. United States ex rel. Adventist Health System of West v. AbbVie, et…
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Permits 340B-Based FCA Claims to Proceed Despite Lack of Private Right of Action

District 4 of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled ruled that in a preliminary hearing in a criminal case there is no requirement that any witness have firsthand knowledge of facts of the alleged crime; instead, a mere reading of the criminal complaint may suffice to bind a defendant over for trial if the complaint is thorough and detailed enough.

While the court said it would be “difficult to establish generally applicable rules,” it rubber-stamped a prosecution in Rock

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals Reduces Preliminary Hearing to Mere Reading of Criminal Complaint

The Tenth Circuit recently issued two companion decisions confirming the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) authority to cite employers for workplace violence hazards under the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1) (“General Duty Clause”). In both cases, the Tenth Circuit upheld OSHA’s enforcement actions and the citations issued in connection with workplace violence incidents in a psychiatric hospital.
Case Background
Both cases stem from OSHA’s investigation into a psychiatric hospital…
Continue Reading Tenth Circuit Affirms OSHA Authority to Cite Health Care Employers for Workplace Violence Incidents Under the General Duty Clause

As Wisconsin prepares for a Supreme Court election between two appellate judges, examining judicial track records is helpful for understanding a candidate’s potential impact on the high-court bench.

Past rulings can provide insight on how the candidates approach the cases before them, reason and interpret law to get to their decisions, and explain those decisions to lower courts and the public.

Court of Appeals Judges Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor vie for an open seat on the Supreme Court.

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Continue Reading Sample Opinions from this Year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court Candidates

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March 4, 2026 – The Wisconsin Consumer Act (WCA) allowed the defendant to remedy the claim with the individual plaintiff, preventing a class action lawsuit, a 6-1 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided in Gudex v. Franklin Collection Service, Inc., 2026 WI 6.

Reversing the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Justice Brian K. Hagedorn for the majority wrote, “when a customer brings a class action for damages under” Wis. Stat. section 426.110(4)(c) “requires an appropriate remedy be given

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Continue Reading Supreme Court: WCA ‘Appropriate Remedy’ Prevents Class Action

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Feb. 25, 2026 – An appeal challenging the constitutionality of involuntary medication to restore a defendant’s competency to stand trial gave the Wisconsin Supreme Court the opportunity to set standards of review for the
Sell factors in
State v. J.D.B., 2026 WI 5. Justice Brian K. Hagedorn, writing for the 6-1 majority, said “we independently conclude – and agree with the circuit court – that the [s]tate has an important interest in prosecuting Jared for his serious crime

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court Sets Involuntary Medication Standards of Review

stock photoFeb. 24, 2026 – Google’s scan of four files that its employee confirmed contained child sexual abuse material (CSAM) operated outside of the Fourth Amendment as a private search, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously decided today in State v. Rauch Sharak, 2026 WI 4.

“Google scanned and viewed Rauch Sharak’s files on its own. It had a business reason to do so. Law enforcement became involved only after Google submitted a CyberTip,” summarized Justice Janet C. Protasiewicz, who

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Google was a Private Actor in File Search

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Jan. 23, 2026 – The Fourth Amendment’s private search doctrine protected a warrantless view of a video that Snapchat flagged as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday in State v. Gasper, 2026 WI 3.

“The government did not exceed the scope of Snapchat’s search when it viewed the video because any expectation of privacy [Michael Joseph] Gasper may have had in the video was frustrated by the private

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Video View OK Within Private Search

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Dec. 16, 2025 – A car enthusiast who likes vanity plates to express his opinions recently lost his First Amendment claim on summary judgment before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The court in M J Nichols Company, Inc. v. Thompson, No. 24-cv-566-amb (W.D. Wis., Dec. 12, 2025), held that a license plate is government speech.

Whether the language on a license plate is individual expression or government speech to which the First Amendment doesn’t

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Continue Reading U.S. District Court: First Amendment Doesn’t Protect ‘RD RRAGE’

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Nov. 25, 2025 – In what may be the first case of its kind, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in

State v. Melssen, No. 2024AP1942-CR (Nov. 20, 2025) (recommended for publication) vacated an order denying suppression of evidence obtained from an overly broad search of a smartphone. Presiding Judge Rachel A. Graham, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, concluded “the warrant to search [Emil] Melssen’s smartphone – which authorized officers to search virtually all of the messages, images,

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals: Smartphone Search Unconstitutionally Overbroad