Wisconsin

Judge Fit to Be Tied Over Ascot-Wearing Lawyer

A Milwaukee judge known as a fastidious dresser held up a sentencing hearing for three hours yesterday because a prosecutor came to court wearing an ascot. Judge William Sosnay said the ascot violates a court rule that requires lawyers to wear neckties and “borders on contemptuous,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel…

Jan 9, 2008 2:02 PM CST

Supreme Court Reverses 7th Circuit’s Speakerphone Lawyer Ruling

Updated: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a man who contended his lawyer’s participation by speakerphone in a key hearing amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) for Joseph Van Patten, whose lawyer had participated by…

Jan 7, 2008 4:49 PM CST

$1.2M Paid in R.I. Lead Paint Suit

More than two years after DuPont agreed to pay $12 million and clean up 600 homes in order to settle a lead paint lawsuit brought by the state of Rhode Island, the first of the money is being distributed. Several children’s health and educational projects will split $1.2 million of…

Dec 18, 2007 11:26 PM CST

Judge Awards $4.2M Fees in Microsoft Case, a Fraction of the Request

A judge in Wisconsin ruled this week that Microsoft owes a Minneapolis law firm $4.2 million in fees and expenses. The underlying case involved one of the last antitrust lawsuits Microsoft was fighting, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal. The case settled in 2006, but the fee continued on. The Business…

Nov 27, 2007 10:53 PM CST

Former AG Says DOJ Politicized Prosecution

After a relatively convivial two-day confirmation hearing last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning President Bush’s nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the new U.S. attorney general, the gloves were off again today in a House Judiciary Committee hearing over alleged improper White House political influence in Department of…

Oct 23, 2007 11:05 PM CDT

Profs Need Humility, Students Flexibility

Learning to think like a lawyer has benefits. But it can also close law students’ minds to alternative ways of thinking about the world, according to a new study by a linguistic anthropologist. Conducted by Elizabeth Mertz, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and a senior research fellow…

Oct 9, 2007 4:58 PM CDT

Street Legal Lawyers Look for Adventure

The deep aggressive roar of a Harley engine generally isn’t the first association that comes to mind concerning an attorney. But it’s a familiar sound to the founding members of the western Wisconsin chapter of Street Legal, a motorcycle club for attorneys and other legal professionals, writes the Pierce County…

Sep 13, 2007 11:08 PM CDT

Sex With Client’s Mom Requires Waiver

It may be OK for a lawyer to have sex with a client’s mother—if the client approves the relationship in a written waiver of the conflict. But you can’t ethically have sex with the client, unless the relationship got started prior to the representation. That is the gist of a…

Sep 5, 2007 9:50 PM CDT

Goat’s-Head Note Threatens Lawyer

Remember the fictional scene in The Godfather involving a severed horse’s head? A similarly aggressive threat apparently was intended by the person responsible for leaving a severed goat’s head for a real-life Wisconsin attorney, reports an ABC-affiliated local television station. The goat’s mouth held a threatening note, the contents of…

Aug 29, 2007 1:46 AM CDT

Lawmakers Move to Slash Law School $$

A Wisconsin lawmaker fed up with “ambulance chasers” and “frivolous lawsuits” has managed to convince his state’s General Assembly this week to de-fund the University of Wisconsin law school. “We don’t need more ambulance chasers. We don’t need frivolous lawsuits. And we don’t need attorneys making people’s lives miserable when…

Jul 13, 2007 11:03 PM CDT

Wis. Archdiocese Can Be Sued for Fraud

It’s too late for five alleged child victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Milwaukee between 1973 and 1982 to sue the archdiocese there for negligent supervision. But it may not be too late to sue for fraud, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided today, reversing a lower court dismissal…

Jul 11, 2007 5:31 PM CDT

City Didn’t Discriminate re Bipolar Atty

A former city attorney in Lake Geneva, Wis., says he won’t appeal a state administrative law judge ruling that he wasn’t discriminated against due to his bipolar disorder. Michael Rielly had contended the city didn’t reasonably accommodate his disability last summer when it fired him from his elected position several…

Jul 6, 2007 9:19 PM CDT

Another Big Defense Win in Paint Case

Now is apparently the time to be a defense lawyer representing a paint manufacturer in big-bucks litigation over injuries allegedly caused by lead-based products manufactured decades ago. Hard on the heels of recent defense victories in lead paint lawsuits in Missouri and New Jersey, a jury in Milwaukee, Wisc., found…

Jun 23, 2007 1:41 AM CDT

Wisconsin Supreme Court: Officials Must Specify Subject of Public Meetings

Government officials must specify the subject of public meetings, particularly when they know the subject is likely to be controversial, the Wisconsin Supreme Court says. Ruling today on a parent’s protest that the state’s 30-year-old open meetings law had not been followed when the Tomah Area School District noticed an…

Jun 13, 2007 8:56 PM CDT

Wisconsin Bar Weighs a Degree of Change

Status may end as last state to admit its law school grads without taking bar exam

Apr 1, 2007 12:50 PM CDT