COVID-19 has taken a great toll on employees and workplaces. Of primary concern for employers is the safety and health of employees. Up until June 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had not provided formal guidance on dealing with COVID-19 in the workplace.In June 2021, OSHA published
Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace, for
all employers outside of the health care industry. Since then,
Continue Reading Six Recommendations: OSHA’s Updated COVID-19 Guidance
Latest from State Bar of Wisconsin - Page 60
Who Can Sue? Determining Standing for Misrepresentation Claims
It is not uncommon for ownership to change multiple times soon after the purchase of property.For instance, a group of related companies might have one entity purchase undeveloped property, transfer ownership after purchase to another entity to construct buildings or otherwise develop the property, and transfer ownership again upon completion of construction to a third entity that will manage the property.As another example, one company might buy an office building, and then engage in an immediate sale-leaseback agreement with
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3 Discovery Tools Underemployed in Family Law
Like any other civil action, family law matter outcomes are decided on the facts. Those facts are typically collected directly from the client, and through interrogatories and requests for production of documents.
Typically these methods alone are sufficient to collect the discovery you need to engage in settlement negotiations and prepare for trial.
However, there are other methods of collecting facts that may be appropriate and necessary in some matters. To best represent their clients, family law practitioners should
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Transcript Errata in the Time of COVID-19
Zoom depositions have presented interesting challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the court reporter is not physically present in the room with the deponent and/or the deponent is masked and socially distanced, the accuracy of the transcript can suffer. Combine this with scientific or technical testimony, along with screen “freeze” and other technical glitches, and – voilà – you have the perfect recipe for a transcript laden with errors.How does an attorney address the circumstance of “I didn’t say
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Is Now the Time to Sell or Gift a Business?
As we approach the end of 2021, there are important questions business owners should consider before the year is over. One such question is whether now is the time to transfer business ownership by gift, sale, or a combination of both.
Due to recent changes in our country’s political landscape, there has been a lot of buzz about potential upcoming changes to the tax code. For example, there could be increases for income taxes, gift taxes, and estate taxes
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Are Zoom Mediations Really Our Future?
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes to our law practices and that includes how we conduct mediations.
Gone for the most part during the pandemic are the parties and their lawyers coming to the mediator’s office, parties going to their separate rooms, and the mediator shuffling back and forth hoping to reach a settlement.
This has been replaced often by the parties appearing by Zoom and being put into “breakout rooms.”
As the pandemic recedes, the question becomes:
Continue Reading Are Zoom Mediations Really Our Future?
Wisconsin’s Children Need You: The Juvenile Rural Access to Training and Expertise Program
Want to make a difference in the life of a child and practice in a rewarding area of law, network with other lawyers helping Wisconsin youth,
and get free CLE credits?Consider becoming involved in a new project, Juvenile Rural Access to Training and Expertise (J-RATE), created by the State Public Defender Office (SPD) and funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).The Purpose of Juvenile Rural Access to
Transferring Guardianship to Another State Under Chapter 53: ‘What? Like It’s Hard?’
For those of you who have not seen the cinematic classic that is Legally Blonde, the above title is a nod to the main character’s most notorious line.After Elle Woods successfully gains admission to an Ivy League law school, one of her classmates cannot fathom how she was admitted, and her response is the above phrase of incredulity.
Amy K. Greske, William Mitchell 2014, is an attorney at O’Neill Elder Law, LLC, in Hudson. She practices elder law and
Amy K. Greske, William Mitchell 2014, is an attorney at O’Neill Elder Law, LLC, in Hudson. She practices elder law and The State Removed Access to Your Clients’ Property. Now What?
For real estate to have value, you have to be able to get
to it. The right of ingress and egress to the public roadways from a property is called “access,” or an “easement of access.” Access is an inherent property right. Any property abutting a public roadway has an easement of access to the road, even without an express deed or grant.Yet, a property’s access rights are not unlimited. The State (and municipalities) have a legitimate governmental
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Evolving Challenges in the Appointment of Counsel in Criminal Court
The recent court of appeals decision, State v. Nhia Lee, which is now pending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, highlights the challenges the State Public Defenders Office (SPD) has in finding counsel to take its conflict and overflow cases, especially in rural parts of the state. It also highlights the need for additional communication between the SPD and the circuit courts about efforts to appoint counsel.
To that end, the SPD has created uniform procedures for tracking and
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The Wisconsin Supreme Court Slows Down the ‘Quiet Revolution’
This article was originally posted July 15, 2021, in the Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog. It is reprinted here with permission.About four years ago I wrote a blog post titled “The Quiet Revolution in Wisconsin Administrative Law.” My purpose then was to point out an “unprecedented makeover in longstanding principles of state-level administrative law” that “shift[ed] power away from agencies and toward courts, the legislature, and the governor.”Recently the Wisconsin Supreme Court finally took the field
Continue Reading The Wisconsin Supreme Court Slows Down the ‘Quiet Revolution’
Anti-bias Training: Critical for All Lawyers
Bias is not limited to major issues such as race and gender. Bias is present in many other areas, such as our educational background, where we live, and how we dress.Did you attend U.W., Marquette, or an out-of-state law school? We are judged on where we practice. Are you based in a rural county or an urban one? We are evaluated on our very own appearance. Do you have a thin and wispy or large and burly build? Are
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Construction Material Price Increases: Options for Contractual Risk Shifting
During the COVID-19 pandemic, construction material prices rose substantially and, in some cases, skyrocketed to record high levels.1
Lumber prices reached historic highs in May 2021, with futures prices rising from $423 per thousand board feet as of Jan. 8, 2020, to a $1,607 per thousand board feet on May 10, 2021.2
Although lumber prices have started to fall, prices are still nearly double January 2020 prices. The rise in lumber prices has largely been attributed to
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Mediation in the Time of COVID-19: When Virtual Became Real
As we slowly, haltingly emerge from the depths of the pandemic, we are starting to assess whether and how our lives will be forever changed. One of the most profound changes may well be the increase in opportunities, post-pandemic, for working from home, as employers discovered that home workers maintained and often increased their productivity.
A key to the success of working from home was the acceptance and adoption of virtual meeting platforms, most notably Zoom.
The alternative dispute
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On the Bias Against Immigrant Caregivers in the Child Welfare System
A 2018 case studyconducted by the American Bar Association’s Center on Children reported that there are 70 million children under the age of 18.1 Within this total, about 18.2 million children under the age of 18 live with at least one immigrant parent. Most of these children already live in family units with members who are U.S. Citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, have some other lawful status, or do not have lawful status altogether.
Because of the huge number
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Electronic Records and Signatures: Rise and Risks
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to adapt to a remote work environment, creating challenges for the use of traditional transaction formats, such as paper contracts.
Although pen-and-paper contracts are hardly extinct, the pandemic has accelerated the evolution toward electronic-only business transactions. Businesses and business lawyers must therefore develop practices and procedures to navigate this new virtual world.
This article discusses the laws that apply to electronic records and signatures, the challenges they create, and best practices to
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