Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
Up for debate today in the Senate is a bill that would crack down on text messaging while driving. Wisconsin Senate Bill 103 would ban text messaging for drivers under the age of 18. [see Senate substitute amendment 1 for the under 18 language] According to the bill, violators would be charged a fine between …
Everyone arrested on suspicion of a serious crime in Wisconsin would be required to give a DNA sample under a bill introduced earlier this month. Wisconsin Senate Bill 336 requires law enforcement agencies to collect a biological specimen for DNA analysis from every adult who is arrested for a felony and every juvenile who is …
I’ve seen this posted on a number of dumb laws websites and have always been a little skeptical. Connie Von Der Heide at the Wisconsin State Law Library took the time to check it out. Her answer appears in the Wisconsin State Journal. “It certainly sounds plausible since after all this is the Dairy State, …
The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau has produced a nice 2-sided color pamphlet summarizing facts and figures about Wisconsin.
Channel 3000.com has a good summary of the changes consumers can expect under the new Credit Card Act of 2009. The Good: “It’s not going to be quite as easy to get into trouble as it has been in the past,” says Michael Johnson, finance instructor at Madison Area Technical College. The Bad: “Those low, …
Congratulations to this year’s nominees for the Unsung Heroes award presented by the Wisconsin Law Journal. The award seeks to recognize the legal professionals whose efforts are essential to helping law firms and courts run efficiently. Categories include Secretary, Paralegal, Law Librarian, Administrator, Human Resources, IT Specialists, Marketers, and Court Staff. I’d like to give …
From Federal Evidence Review: Internet chatroom conversations about having sex with minors was admissible to show the defendant’s knowledge of the age of his victim and absence of mistake under FRE 404(b); a sufficient showing was made that he made the other chats and not other family members who had access to the computer, in …
In an unpublished opinion by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the court imposed a $100 sanction on counsel for a seriously messed up citation. The case is Espitia v. Fouche 314 Wis.2d 507, 758 N.W.2d 224 (Table), 2008 WL 4058057 (Wis.App.), 2008 WI App 160. FN5. Counsel for Espitia cites to an unpublished case assertedly …
Last week, West announced that a selection of its most popular law book titles are now available for the Kindle eBook reader. For a full list, see the press release. To purchase the West titles for the Kindle, search for them on Amazon. Source: Due Process: The Georgetown Law Library Blog
From the latest edition of WisBar InsideTrack: Sept. 29, 2009 – A petition filed on Sept. 25 with the Wisconsin Supreme Court aims to extend the “diploma privilege” to graduates of all ABA-approved law schools or abolish it entirely. Petitioner Steven Levine, a past State Bar of Wisconsin president, and 70 other State Bar members …