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Please note that any opinions expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent any position of the State Bar of Wisconsin nor any State Bar section. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brought many changes to the legal profession, including changes in how Wisconsin lawyers can fulfill their continuing legal education (CLE) credits. Now another change may be coming. SCR 31.02 requires Wisconsin attorneys to take a total of 30 CLE credits during every two-year reporting period. A…
Continue Reading Are Changes Coming to CLE Requirements?

“Never trust the translation or interpretation of something without first trusting its interpreter. One word absent from a sentence can drastically change the true intended meaning of the entire sentence.” – The Writings of Suzy Kassem
 

The need for qualified interpreters in our judicial system continues to increase in Wisconsin.

According to the U.S. Census bureau, 3% of Wisconsin residents report speaking English “less than very well.”1 The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says that 8.6% of…
Continue Reading Increasing Access to Justice through Court Interpreters

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In this video, Attorney Jessica M. Kramer discusses how to terminate a residential tenancy, what type of notice to use, and provides answers to some commonly asked questions.

For more information about legal issues pertaining to landlords, or ways in which KEW can assist you with landlord related inquiries, contact KEW at info@kewlaw.com.

The post Evicted: notices needed to terminate a residential tenancy in Wisconsin appeared first on Kramer, Elkins & Watt, LLC.
Continue Reading Evicted: Notices Needed to Terminate a Residential Tenancy in Wisconsin

We at Stafford Rosenbaum LLP are so excited to announce that a new partner has joined the firm, Attorney JP Croake! JP has an extensive background in business and real estate, and he is a fantastic addition to Stafford Rosenbaum’s business law and real estate law teams.
Prior to joining Stafford Rosenbaum, JP spent his career representing and advising clients ranging from small businesses, entrepreneurs and real estate companies to national corporations, health care providers and franchises on a…
Continue Reading Attorney JP Croake Joins Stafford Rosenbaum LLP

This blog continues to focus on some of the procedural and substantive legal changes that resulted from the 2021-2022 Legislative Session.
2021 Act 204: Codifying Keller and Creating Uniformity in Procedure
In addition to some of the procedural statutory updates in the last blog post, a new procedural format was established for litigants in family court cases.  This change, while procedural in nature, does have substantive legal implications for both lawyers and litigants.
This bill amends Wis. Stat. §…
Continue Reading Statutory Updates in Family Law, Part II

Nationwide, restaurants and bars felt financial strain over the past two years. With measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, many food and beverage businesses were subject to restrictions on the use of their in-person dining rooms. In a recent case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found that COVID-19 related business interruption losses were not recoverable under the insured’s property insurance policies. The Court found that COVID-19 restrictions were not direct physical losses, triggering a claim under a…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Joins the Majority: Profit Losses Due to COVID-19 Not Insured

Over the last several years, the Wisconsin Legislature, in the wake of the 2018 Joint Legislative Council Study Committee on Child Placement and Support, several new legislative initiatives were introduced.  The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the passage of many of these bills, but several passed in the 2020-2021 Legislative Session.  Many of these statutes are procedures, codifying and streamlining practice for attorneys, litigants and the Courts, but many are also substantive law changes.  This is Part I of a three-part…
Continue Reading Statutory Updates in Family Law, Part I

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First of all, when we say “leave” we are referring to leave as a general term of not being required to be at work. So, leave is an umbrella term that refers to vacation time, sick time, personal time,  PTO and whatever other creative term may be used to refer to time away from work.

A common misconception is that all employers are required to provide leave to their employees. However, whether or not an employer is required to…
Continue Reading Do I need to provide leave to my employees?

Setting aside the other benefits of a public interest legal career, if you have moderate or high qualifying student loan debt, working for a public interest employer may be your smartest financial move – even if the salary is low. Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) allows those with qualifying student loans to discharge the balance of their student loans tax free after working at a qualifying employer for 10 years while making 120 qualifying monthly payments. Public Service Loan…
Continue Reading On Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Success Stories and Financial Considerations

Public bodies deal with many of the same legal issues as private enterprises—plus a host of unique risks that arise because they are public actors. Public bodies therefore must take care to ensure that they are not violating the protected constitutional rights of their citizens, employees, contractors, or (in the case of schools) students. A new iteration of constitutional claims against public bodies arose in spring 2020, with colleges closing their campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing…
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Rejects Students’ Claim that University’s Refusal to Refund Fees During COVID Closures Amounts to Constitutional Violation

Public bodies deal with many of the same legal issues as private enterprises—plus a host of unique risks that arise because they are public actors. Public bodies therefore must take care to ensure that they are not violating the protected constitutional rights of their citizens, employees, contractors, or (in the case of schools) students. A new iteration of constitutional claims against public bodies arose in spring 2020, with colleges closing their campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing…
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Rejects Claim that University’s Refusal to Refund Fees During COVID Closures Amounts to Constitutional Violation

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For attorneys involved in child protective services (CHIPS) cases, it is helpful to understand the various forms of economics involved in the payment of care for the children. My perspective is from the circuit court level, primarily as guardian ad litem in Sheboygan County cases. The first part of this article sets forth the types of funds that are available in CHIPS, minor guardianship, or post-TPR adoption cases. The second part of this article briefly takes a broader perspective…
Continue Reading Tip of the Month: Economics and Children in Protective Care

This month, the Court of Appeals affirmed a circuit court decision that held that the City of Brookfield engaged in an unconstitutional taking when it conditioned the approval of a subdivision development on construction of a new public street. The Court of Appeals determined that this “exaction” was not permissible because it did not address a need caused by the development proposal and, even if it did, the exaction was not proportional to the conditions sought to be addressed…
Continue Reading Court of Appeals Determines City Development Condition Is Unconstitutional Taking

CAFA Background and Exceptions

On March 16, 2022, the Seventh Circuit issued its opinion in Schutte v. Coix Health, resolving an open question about the breadth of the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”). 28 USC § 1711 et seq. Congress enacted CAFA in 2005 to expand the availability of federal courts to class action defendants; the Act loosens the requirements for defendants seeking to remove to federal court cases that have been filed in state court as putative class…
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Resolves Open Question Under Class Action Fairness Act