I have to include a personal note here. My friend from law school passed away suddenly the week ending November 15th. Like me, he was an “older” student at law school, and we were both one of the few still trying to keep up with all the reading by hanging out at the law library on Friday evenings.
Dave’s claim to fame at law school were his 1L contributions to the weekly “WE” law school student newsletter. He “wrote”
Continue Reading Rave Rothstein RIP
In August of this year, the US Post Office announced a new rule that included without much fanfare a MAJOR change in when letters are postmarked. Under this new rule, most letters will no longer be postmarked on the day the letter is received by a post office but instead postmarked a day later when the letter is processed at a regional mail processing facility.
It is important that mailers understand the distinction between the date when the Postal
Continue Reading Postmark changes at the Post Office and late mail
The legislature has sent three unemployment bills to the governor.
As I wrote previously in a letter to the legislature, AB168 and AB169 deserve an immediate veto. Indeed, Gov. Evers previously vetoed versions of these bills during the last legislative session.
AB146, on the other hand, addresses a real problem in Wisconsin: ongoing and worsening delays in mail delivery. As I already noted to the legislature, however, formally extending the deadline for responding to
Continue Reading Legislative unemployment bills going to the governor
Information about the class representatives and how to obtain unemployment benefits that are due disabled workers because of Wisconsin’s illegal SSDI eligibility ban is now available.
Besides this guidance, make sure to review the Department’s well done information about how to obtain the unemployment benefits that are due you.
Recent press coverage of the case is available.
Continue Reading Class representatives for the Wisconsin SSDI eligibility ban case
The Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council has been meeting for most of 2025 over Department proposals and then proposals from the labor and management representatives.
After the Sept. 18th meeting ended, council members apparently reached agreement, because on the morning of Sept. 24th LRB drafts of agreed-on bills were ready for review by council members.
Note: The minutes of the Sept. 18th meeting show that council members went to caucus and did not return from that caucus to announce
Continue Reading Advisory Council agreed-on bill does little to nothing for workers or anyone else
Registration with the job center of Wisconsin website must be done once at the start of every benefit year. Usually, with each new benefit year of yours you will get a notice that looks like this or this. On the claim-filing portal, you see a notice similar to the following:
Note: You can compare the Department’s 2013 FAQ with the current FAQ.
Once logged on to the jobcenterofwisconsin.com website with your user-id and password (separate from your
Continue Reading Wisconsin job center registration
The SSDI eligibility ban in Wisconsin is no more. On July 14th, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction to the Department to stop enforcing the SSDI eligibility ban effective July 20th.
Note: The Wisconsin Examiner and Fox6 have stories on this court order.
This order should mean that, as of July 20th, any kind of unemployment claim (initial claim or weekly certification) or any initial determination or appeal tribunal hearing or decision (and any Commission decision over
Continue Reading SSDI eligibility ban in Wisconsin no longer enforced
At June 19, 2025, meeting of the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, the labor and management proposals this year were presented to the public.
Labor proposals
The labor proposals this year reflect many of the Department’s own proposals (for good and bad).
Increase the maximum weekly benefit rate for unemployment benefits to $497 per week in 2026 and then have the rate indexed for subsequent years.
This proposal mirrors Department proposal D25-04.
Eliminating the one-week waiting period.
This proposal
Continue Reading Labor and Management Unemployment Proposals in 2025
On May 19th of 2025, the legislature introduced a bill that gives drivers for Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and similar app-based companies the possibility of self-funded health insurance (in portable benefit accounts that could possibility also receive contributions from the companies if a company, for some reason, decides to help pay for such health insurance coverage) in return for losing their status as employees under current Wisconsin law.
The legislature rushed the hearings and passage of this bill and sent
Continue Reading Network drivers pretense
On June 5th, the US Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion that reversed the Wisconsin Supreme Court to find that the state court had violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment by explicitly imposing “a denominational preference by differentiating between religions based on theological lines.” By distinguishing between religious bodies that engage in proselytizing with their charitable activities and the Catholic Church that does not engage in proselytizing with its charitable activities, an illegal distinction had been made
Continue Reading Catholic Charities: Religious exemption found
At the 20 March 2025 meeting of the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, the Department introduced another round of extensive, substantive proposed changes to unemployment law.
Note: Despite many of these proposals being repeats from prior proposals, the Department did not include any financial estimates with these current proposals. At the April 17th Council meeting, however, the Department included fiscal estimates. Accordingly, the links to the proposals are to the April 2025 versions and not the March 2025 versions that
Continue Reading Department Proposals in 2025
On July 17, 2024, the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled on a case challenging whether it was legal to prevent recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) from also receiving Wisconsin unemployment compensation benefits. The court held that the state law that automatically prevented SSDI recipients from receiving unemployment compensation benefits violated federal law that protects disabled people. As a result, the SSDI eligibility ban has been found to discriminate against disabled
Continue Reading SSDI eligibility ban in Wisconsin is illegal
The US Supreme Court granted the petition for review in Catholic Charities, and oral argument is scheduled for March 31st at 10am eastern time. You can listen to the oral argument at this link.
The issue being addressed by the justices in this case is:
Does a state violate the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses by denying a religious organization an otherwise-available tax exemption because the organization does not meet the state’s criteria for religious behavior?
Framed in
Continue Reading Catholic Charities of Wisconsin at the US Supreme Court
Given the mass layoffs of late happening with federal employees, some information for how federal employees can claim unemployment benefits is probably needed.
In general, the administration and eligibility calculations/determinations of unemployment benefits is handled at the state level. The benefits themselves, however, come from the federal government. Because the administration varies from state to state, the claim-filing process and benefits vary according to the state handling that unemployment claim. So, a federal employee filing in Minnesota rather
Continue Reading Unemployment Claims for Federal Employees
For more than a decade, an increasing number of workers are finding that they have “agreed” to have all of their workplace disputes handled through arbitration proceedings.
Note: This “agreement” is often little more than a clause in small print in pages of paperwork that you sign with no discussion or even chance to review.
The problem is that this forced arbitration of a dispute is a one-time, private resolution. While the arbitrator is, in theory, a neutral decision-maker,
Continue Reading Forced arbitration for workers
The diocese has petitioned for review before the US Supreme Court the Catholic Charities decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Note: All the filed materials with the US Supreme Court are available at the court’s public docket for this case.
In its decision, Catholic Charities v. LIRC, 2024 WI 13, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that non-profit entities affiliated with the diocese (but not actually funded by the diocese) were not exempt from paying unemployment taxes
Continue Reading Catholic Charities of Wisconsin might be going to the US Supreme Court