Liability Law

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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

As a small business owner, there are lot of plates that you are constantly spinning. How are your customers? Employees? What’s going on with your vendors? Your distributors? And on and on. One thing that often slips through is the actual status of the company. We had an intern this summer, and one of her jobs was to look through a bunch of our clients (not all – we aren’t that mean) and check on their status with either…
Continue Reading Keep On Keeping On

Close-up of German Shepard brown eye looking straight at us
Dog German Shepherd looking towards the camera. The photo has an extremley shallow depth of field.

Wisconsin’s dog bite statute imposes strict liability against dog keepers/owners if their dog causes injury to another. Wisconsin Stat. § 174.02(1) states:

(1) Liability for injury. (a) Without notice. Subject to s. 895.045 and except as provided in s 895.57(4), the owner of a dog is liable for the full amount of damages caused by the dog injuring or causing injury to a person, domestic animal or property.

An owner is generally liable regardless of measures taken to prevent…
Continue Reading Liability Defenses for Dog Bite Cases in Wisconsin

White-tailed Deer - Odocoileus virginianus

Hunting leases present a number of issues, which if not addressed in writing, can lead to misunderstandings at best, and unexpected liability or litigation at worst.  Because both the owner’s and the hunter’s needs vary depending on the type of land and the type of hunting involved, each leasing situation presents its own set of unique requirements and expectations.  An owner may be a farmer who allows hunting only during gun deer season or spring turkey hunting season.  This…
Continue Reading Hunting Lease Issues

One of the first discussions I have with new business clients is about how their assets are held and if they have sufficient insurance for the risk that they have in the operation of the business. Oftentimes, businesses don’t recognize that they are at risk because insurance agents are not required to tell you what insurance you need to protect yourself from specific risks. Unless you pay an insurance professional a separate fee to advise you on what insurance…
Continue Reading Insurance and Multiple Entities: Two Necessary Evils?

Man having fun speeding with a snowmobile through the powder snow at sunset

As we head into winter, many people across the state will throw on their snowmobiling gear and hop on the approximately 25,000 miles of snowmobile trails we have in Wisconsin.

Snowmobiling is incredibly popular in the dairy state. There are more than 200,000 registered snowmobiles in Wisconsin,1 and we are home to the World Championship Snowmobile Derby (in Eagle River) and the International Snowmobile Racing Hall of Fame (in St. Germain).2
25,000 Miles of Trails, Most on

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Continue Reading Protecting Private Landowners: Recreational Immunity in Wisconsin

On February 25, 2021, Governor Evers signed 2021 Wisconsin Act 4, which became effective as of February 27, 2021.  In general, the new law takes a step toward modernizing Wisconsin’s unemployment system after more than a decade with no upgrades. In addition, the legislature took the opportunity to attach language as it relates to immunity for civil liability for COVID-19 exposure.

The immunity-related language reflects compromises that were struck between the Evers administration and the legislature. Included in the…
Continue Reading Wisconsin’s COVID Immunity Law