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June 5, 2026 – A City of Milwaukee election official wanted to show it’s easy to fraudulently obtain absentee military ballots.

In succeeding, she committed election fraud, the District I Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed in State v. Zapata, No. 2025AP425-CR (May 12, 2026).

“We conclude that Wis. Stat. § 12.13(3)(i) prohibits making false statements for the purpose of actually or constructively obtaining an absentee ballot, and [Kimberly D.] Zapata constructively obtained the ballots she requested,” wrote…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Court of Appeals: Intent Didn’t Prevent Election Fraud

​By Erik Reinthaler
WJI Intern
​
A federal judge recently dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit to force Wisconsin election officials to produce the state’s unredacted voter registration list.
In a narrow and technical ruling on May 21, Western District of Wisconsin Chief Judge James D. Peterson found that the unredacted list is not subject to disclosure under the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The judge did not address issues of voter privacy.

“While the judge didn’t rule

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Continue Reading Wisconsin’s Voter List Protected by Federal Judge: Decision Explained

Employers that rely on transportation workers, delivery drivers, and gig drivers may face significantly increased litigation risk following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Flowers Foods v. Brock, the Court ruled that “last mile” local delivery drivers qualify for the Federal Arbitration Act’s exemption for “transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce,” even if the drivers do not cross state lines. As a result, some transportation workers and gig drivers now have the green light to pursue their disputes…
Continue Reading ‘Last Mile’ Drivers Are NOT Covered by Mandatory Arbitration Agreements

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the conviction of Kimberly Zapata, who unsuccessfully urged the court to overturn her convictions for voter fraud and public-office misconduct, arguing she was a whistleblower.

A unanimous jury convicted Zapata in March 2024. The charges included one count of felony misconduct in public office and three misdemeanor counts of making a false statement to obtain or vote an absentee ballot.

Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Kori Ashley sentenced Zapata to nine months in

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Continue Reading Court of Appeals Upholds Convictions of Voting Official Who Argued She was a Private Citizen Whistleblower

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently addressed a question of first impression concerning the scope of a circuit court’s authority when a dispute is subject to mandatory arbitration. In Herbal Aspect LLC v. Gish, the court held that a circuit court retains authority to consider and grant a temporary injunction to preserve the status quo, even after determining that the merits of the dispute must be resolved through arbitration.

The underlying dispute arose out of competing claims over ownership…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Court of Appeals Confirms Courts May Issue Temporary Injunctions Pending Arbitration

April 28, 2026 – The asbestos dust that a steamfitter breathed, causing mesothelioma, resulted in safe-place statute liability for Pabst Brewing Co., a 5-2 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided recently in

Estate of Carol Lorbiecki v. Pabst Brewing Co., 2026 WI 12.

“As the owner of the brewery, Pabst owed a non-delegable duty under the safe-place statute to frequenters on the premises, a category that includes employees of independent contractors like Lorbiecki,” Justice Rebecca Frank…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court: Asbestos Created Safe-Place Statute Liability

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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