State Bar of Wisconsin​

We are a professional association for Wisconsin lawyers. The State Bar provides educational, career development, and other services to more than 25,000 members. We also provide public services, including attorney referrals, public education, and reduced-fee legal assistance for low-income state residents. Our mission is to improve the administration of justice and the delivery of legal services and to promote the professional interests of Wisconsin lawyers.

I devote a not-so-small portion of my practice to serving as a guardian ad litem in cases involving minor settlements. I scratched my head a number of times last year at anecdotes I heard and things I witnessed myself when it came to dealing with minor settlements.

And that got me thinking; maybe we should all think a bit more about how to most effectively and efficiently approach settlements offered to minors.

I am hopeful that anyone reading this
Continue Reading Some Thoughts on Minor Settlements and GALs in Personal Injury Cases

Feb. 12, 2025 – All the members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed Friday in Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) v. LeMahieu, 2025 WI 4 (Feb. 7, 2025), that WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe may continue in that position past the expiration of her term because the position is not vacant.

The court then disagreed in concurrences written by Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and Rebecca Grassl Bradley on whether the Supreme Court properly decided the case governing this decision, State
Continue Reading Supreme Court: Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Remains as Holdover

The legal profession, steeped in tradition and precedent, is undergoing a transformation. Generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), have made remarkable strides in understanding and generating human-like text.1 Whether through advanced legal research tools or e-discovery software, it is apparent that AI has a role to play in the legal system. Billable Hour Dilemma For decades, law firms have operated on a simple premise: time equals money. Associates and partners typically track their work in six-minute increments,
Continue Reading Beyond the Billable Hour: Generative AI is Already Reshaping Law Firm Economics

Wisconsin is no stranger to unique quirks in its legal system. It is one of the few states in the country that 17-year-olds are charged as adult defendants. It is also the only state where law school graduates can become attorneys via diploma privilege, bypassing the Wisconsin bar exam.

This article centers around Wisconsin’s unorthodox operating while intoxicated (OWI) laws – a where a first offense is a noncriminal traffic citation as opposed to a much more serious misdemeanor
Continue Reading The First One’s on the House? Wisconsin’s Unusual OWI Laws

Jan. 28, 2025 – Although a legal issue remained in the future, an order in a divorce case was final – killing the ex-husband’s appeal because it arrived too late – allowing the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reiterate the standards for finality critical for appeal deadlines.

A 4-2 majority denied the ex-husband’s appeal in Morway v. Morway, 2025 WI 3 (Jan. 22, 2025). Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler did not participate in the case.

Although Justice Rebecca Frank
Continue Reading Appeal Denied: The Finality of Orders at Issue in Post-Divorce Case

Jan. 27, 2025 – In Wisconsin Voter Alliance (WVA) v. Secord, 2025 WI 2 (Jan. 17, 2025), a 5-2 majority reversed and remanded a District II Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision because it violated the prohibition defined in Cook v. Cook, 208 Wis. 2d 166 (1997), which held that the court of appeals cannot reverse its own decisions.

The supreme court did not decide the merits: whether state public records law requires release of Notice of Voting
Continue Reading Supreme Court: Appeals Court Wrongfully Overruled Precedent in Public Records Case

According to CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, “about 41% of women and 26% of men experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime and reported a related impact.”

And according to End Abuse Wisconsin:
Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive, controlling behavior that can include physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, financial, and other abuse. Domestic violence is more than physical violence. It can include threats, harassment, putting
Continue Reading Domestic Violence Impacts Presumptions on Legal Custody in Family Law

Discovering an undisclosed problem shortly after moving into a newly purchased house can be an aggravating experience for a new homeowner.

It is particularly frustrating for the homeowner who obtained a pre-purchase inspection as part of the house purchase. When the basement of the house begins to experience water intrusion after every rain, the homeowner begins to theorize that the home inspector negligently overlooked critical signs during the inspection.

Kevin Trost, U.W. 1998, is the founding member of
Continue Reading What Home Inspectors Aren’t Legally Responsible for May Surprise You

Cultural competency refers to the ability to understand, communicate, and interact effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds.1 For attorneys, this means recognizing and respecting clients’ values, traditions, and perspectives while tailoring their approach to meet specific needs. This skill requires more than just awareness; it requires understanding different perspectives, reflecting on biases, expanding cultural knowledge, and building cross-cultural competencies. ​

Nancy Martinez Ramirez, is a member of the Marquette University Law School Class of 2026, in
Continue Reading Cultural Competency Is an Essential Attorney Skill

Over its last several sessions, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has attempted to determine that burden of proof required during at dispositional phase of a termination of parental rights case in Wisconsin.

The Court first addressed this issue in June 2023 in its decision in State v. A.G.1 In a December 2023 article in this blog, my co-author Courtney L.A. Roelandts and I provided a detailed analysis of this case, which dealt with the issue of the burden
Continue Reading Soon We May Soon Know the Required Burden of Proof in TPR Dispositional Hearings

Jan. 9, 2025 – A required psychological report filed less than 48 hours before a final hearing for involuntary commitment stripped the circuit court of competency because it deprived the person to be committed of due process, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently decided in Outagamie County v. M.J.B., 2024 AP 250. Circuit courts have subject matter jurisdiction under the Wisconsin Constitution, but a circuit court may not be competent to hear a case if it fails to
Continue Reading Appeals Court: Circuit Court Lost Competency in Final Hearing for Involuntary Commitment After Required Report Arrived Late

You might say
Avery Mayne’s first elder law client was her law review, the
Marquette Elder’s Advisor. As editor-in-chief her 3L year, she found herself fighting for its existence. “It was probably my first experience doing some real advocacy,” she told me. Mayne has built on that experience to continue advocating for those whose welfare is threatened. I’m interviewing elder law attorneys around the state to find out why and how they started practicing elder law, what
Continue Reading Helping the Underdog: Avery Mayne and her Elder Law Practice

A recent appellate court opinion out of New Jersey, McGinty v. Zheng (Sept. 20, 2024), which addressed issues surrounding arbitration agreements in the context of personal injury claims, sparked my interest.

The McGinty case is a pivotal example of how courts are interpreting arbitration agreements in the digital age, and serves as a significant reminder for lawyers about the enforceability of arbitration clauses and the implications of user agreements in digital platforms.

Teresa Kobelt, U.W. 1988, is an
Continue Reading A New Jersey Case and the Insidiousness of Arbitration Agreements

Consider the following hypothetical: a veteran employee of a Wisconsin corporation with a spotless disciplinary record shows up to work, where he is required to take a random drug test. The test is pursuant to the corporation’s long-established drug use policy, which mandates immediate termination for employees who test positive for controlled substances without a valid prescription. The policy is applied evenly to all employees, and the tests are administered without bias or discrimination.

Although the employee states that
Continue Reading CBD, THC, and the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act

Exciting News! Starting in 2025, two new podcasts will join Bottom Up in a rotation of podcasts produced by the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Bottom Up, co-hosted by Emil Ovbiagele and Kristen Hardy, will continue to explore topics of interest to lawyers in the early stages of their careers. They’ll be back in March 2025.

Two new podcasts – Listening to Lawyers and Practice Pulse – will expand the State Bar’s family of WisLawNOW podcasts, giving lawyers more access
Continue Reading Bottom Up Episode 24: Listening to Lawyers and Practice Pulse Join the Podcast Mix in 2025

Dec. 30, 2024 – Attorney General Josh Kaul violated two provisions of controversial 2017 Act 369, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II decided 2-1 in another case implicating separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.

The Legislature passed and outgoing Gov. Scott Walker signed Act 369 shortly after the November 2018 election changed the balance of power in Madison, requiring the attorney general to “deposit all settlement funds into the general fund.” Prior to that, the
Continue Reading Appeals Court: Attorney General Must Comply with Legislative Limits on Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Settlements