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April 15, 2024 – A driver’s red eyes, slow speech, and freshly lit cigarette gave a police officer reasonable suspicion to expand a traffic stop to field sobriety tests (FST), the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (District III) has ruled in an unpublished opinion in State v. Johnson, 2022AP389 (April 2, 2024)On Jan. 19, 2020, Wisconsin State Trooper Steven Wojcik was on patrol in Eau Claire County.Wojcik got a dispatch about a gray Dodge Ram pickup truck speeding and…
Continue Reading Red Eyes, Slow Speech, Cigarette Enough to Justify Sobriety Test

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April 15, 2024 – An insurance policy’s exception to an exclusion of liability was ambiguous because it lacked terms of geographic limitation while related exceptions contained such terms, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has ruled.

In Bolger v. Massachusetts Bay Insurance Company, 2022AP742 (March 26, 2024), the Court of Appeals (District III) held that because the exception was ambiguous, it must be interpreted against the insurer.In 2018, Massachusetts Bay Insurance Company (MBIC) issued a homeowner’s policy to Bret…
Continue Reading Lack of Geographic Limitation Made Insurance Provision Ambiguous

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April 15, 204 – A lawsuit alleging a breach of contract warranties was barred because it was filed beyond the survival date for the warranties specified in the contract, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (District IV) has ruled in Ripp Distributing Company, Inc. v. Ruby Distribution LLC, 2023AP778 (March 21, 2024).In May 2020, Ripp Distributing Company, Inc. (Ripp) signed a contract to buy the assets of Ruby Distribution LLC (Ruby), a water cooler distribution company.Under the contract, Ruby…
Continue Reading One-year Survival Clause Bars Contract Breach Lawsuit

Wills and trusts may seem like just documents to some, but they are the foundation of protecting your legacy. Estate planning can feel overwhelming, especially when terms like “wills” and “trusts” get thrown around. You know you want to ensure your loved ones are taken care of after you’re gone, but navigating these legal tools can be confusing.
That’s where an estate planning attorney comes in. Wills and trusts drafted by an estate planning attorney will be crafted to…
Continue Reading Wills and Trusts: How an Estate Planning Attorney Can Help

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April 12, 2024 – Resort to affidavits by a legislative fiscal analyst was appropriate to interpret an ambiguous property tax statute, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (District II) has held.In

Wisconsin Department of Revenue v. Master’s Gallery Foods, Inc., 2022AP1909 (March 20, 2024), the Court of Appeals held that those affidavits showed that the legislature meant to exempt from the property tax only manufacturing equipment that had been reported to local governments for assessment and not equipment that had…
Continue Reading Only Locally Assessed Manufacturing Equipment Is Exempt from Tax

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District 2 Governor Karen Bauer speaks during the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Governor’s discussion on the proposed FY 2025 budget on Friday, April 12.

April 12, 2024 – The State Bar of Wisconsin’s 52-member Board of Governors approved the fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025) budget at its meeting on Friday, April 12.

Paul Marshall, the State Bar’s chief financial officer, said that the initial submission of the FY 2025 budget revealed that…
Continue Reading State Bar Board Approves FY 2025 Budget, Takes Other Actions

For the past several years, Wisconsin has ranked near the top of the country for racial disparity in nearly every category related to the juvenile justice system.1

State and national trends also support that there is a particular group of youth of color that are uniquely susceptible to involvement in the juvenile justice system: those who have a disability. Nationally, children with disabilities are removed from school and referred to and involved in the juvenile justice system at…
Continue Reading Interrupting the School to Prison Pipeline at the Intersection of Race and Disability

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley gives remarks during an Admissions ceremony on Jan. 23, 2024, in the Supreme Court Hearing Room.

April 11, 2024 – Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced today that she will retire from the court when her term ends in July 2025. When she retires next year, she will have served 30 years as a justice, 40 years total on the bench.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to…
Continue Reading Justice Ann Walsh Bradley Announces Retirement from Supreme Court

In March 2023, a New York attorney represented a client suing an airline company. The attorney submitted a brief citing over half a dozen cases.

When the judge reviewed the citations, the cases could not be found. The lawyer then admitted to using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to perform the legal research. The artificial intelligence tool had provided fake caselaw and fake citations.

The incident resulted in a $5,000 fine for the attorneys and law firm that submitted the brief.

The…
Continue Reading Artificial Intelligence: The New Frontier in Legal Research?

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April 8, 2024 –The State Bar of Wisconsin has successfully defended its Diversity Clerkship Program and secured a settlement agreement with a plaintiff who challenged the program in federal court. The Diversity Clerkship Program will continue unchanged.

The State Bar’s Diversity Clerkship Program facilitates paid summer internships at private law firms, corporate legal departments, and governmental agencies in Wisconsin that choose to participate by coordinating opportunities for applicants to the Program to meet, interview, and be connected with those…
Continue Reading State Bar Successfully Defends Diversity Clerkship Program: Settlement Agreement Explained

Posted on April 05, 2024 in Criminal Defense
In recent years, “organized retail crime” has been an area of concern for businesses and police agencies throughout the United States. This form of theft usually involves coordinated efforts by multiple people to steal from stores and resell stolen merchandise, often on the internet. The state of Wisconsin has taken steps to address this crime, and people who are accused of organized retail theft may face felony charges, even in situations…
Continue Reading How Does Wisconsin Law Address Organized Retail Crime?

Wisconsin families, like those across the country, can be made up of many different arrangements – the result of active decisions or convenience.

For unmarried couples in Wisconsin, navigating breakups poses unique legal challenges. Every so often, this results in ideas around “palimony” – the marriage of the words “pal” and “alimony” – to address financial support or property division between unmarried adults separating after a period of cohabitation.

While this circumstance may be covered by protections of common…
Continue Reading Navigating Breakups for Unmarried Couples in Wisconsin

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April 3, 2024 – The State Bar of Wisconsin has reached a settlement regarding its Diversity Clerkship Program, which was challenged in federal court. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) has agreed to dismiss this portion of the lawsuit after a clarification in the State Bar’s definition of “diversity.”

“The settlement clarifies the definition of ‘diversity’ but makes no changes to the program,” said State Bar Executive Director Larry J. Martin. “The Diversity Clerkship Program, which…
Continue Reading State Bar of Wisconsin’s Diversity Clerkship Program Continues Unchanged Under Settlement Agreement

Many commentators and practitioners have expressed surprise over the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) expansion of the scope of Section 7 rights. The Board’s recent decision in Home Depot1 is the latest lightening rod for this concern.

On its face, the concern is understandable.
The Decision in Home Depot
In Home Depot, the Board found that an employee’s display on their work uniform of “BLM,” an acronym for Black Lives Matter, constituted protected concerted activity under Section…
Continue Reading ‘Home Depot’ and the NRLB: Section 7 on Steroids

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The Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law has been an integral feature of Wisconsin law, shaping the state’s economy for the past 50 years. To those protected by the law, the WFDL provides valuable security to their business operations and their employees. By contrast, the WFDL has been criticized as inefficient, vague, and protectionist by parties who are subject to the WFDL’s high cause and notice standards. With these differing views, the WFDL has been a source of extensive litigation since…
Continue Reading The Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law Enters Its 50th Year: Open Issues

Jake has been on a tear with economic news for Wisconsin, and it has been too long since I provided an update on this front. So, I’m going to piggyback off of his efforts.

In general, Wisconsin has seen both solid job AND wage growth the past few years.

While the beginning of 2023 saw a slight slow down, the latter half of 2023 saw significant income growth in the state, especially when compared to other Midwestern states.
Change …
Continue Reading Wisconsin economic news