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Recent Blog Posts
Equine Immunity Statute: Suing for Injuries Caused by Equine Activities
Activities involving horses in Wisconsin are referred to as equine activities and the Wisconsin legislature has determined that these are inherently risky activities. As such, in many circumstances, if you are injured while riding a horse or at a horseback riding facility, you may not be able to sue anybody.
What Does “Inherently Risky” Mean?
Inherently risky means there is a danger or condition that is an integral part of equine activities including all of the following:
- The propensity of a horse to behave in a way that may result in injury or death to a person on or near it;
- The unpredictable nature of a horse’s reaction to movement and sound;
- A collision with either an animal or object; and
- The potential for a person who is participating in a horse-related activity to act negligently, to fail to control the horse, or to not act within his or her ability.
Wisconsin Immunity Law and Personal Injury Lawsuits
Generally speaking, when you suffer a personal injury because of the negligence or wrongdoing of another person, tort laws in Wisconsin are there to protect you and provide you with a means to recover for your losses. This means that in most circumstances, you will be compensated for the injuries and damages you have suffered by the negligent party, who will be held responsible under the law for negligent behavior.
In some cases, there are impediments to getting justice and recovering your damages in a court of law. One such circumstance is when an immunity law is used as a shield, and it acts to protect the irresponsible behavior of the wrongdoer and shifts the costs of the damages and injuries that were caused by the wrongdoer over to the innocent victim.
What Are Immunity Laws?
National Estate Planning Awareness Week, October 19-25, 2015
In 2008, Congress passed a resolution proclaiming the third week in October as National Estate Planning Awareness Week. The resolution noted that “Many Americans are unaware that lack of estate planning and financial illiteracy may cause their assets to be disposed of to unintended parties by default through the complex process of probate.” It is estimated that more than 50% of the adult population, roughly 150 million Americans, do not have an up-to-date estate plan to protect themselves, and their families’ assets.
Who Benefits From Estate Planning?
The purpose of estate planning is to develop a strategy that will maintain the financial security of individuals through their lifetime and ensure the intended transfer of their property and assets at death, while taking into consideration the unique circumstances of their families. All too often, we hear:
Internet Sex Crimes
You are most likely familiar with the crimes associated with child pornography and prostitution, just from watching television. What you may not know is that these crimes are sometimes part of a subset of crimes referred to as Internet sex crimes. If you are accused of, or arrested for, an internet sex crime, you are already facing life-altering and permanent damage to your reputation. Your family relationships and employment status can also be negatively affected just from the allegation alone.
Because of the nature of these crimes and the serious repercussions just the accusation brings, it is important to be proactive if you think you might be accused of or arrested for an internet sex crime. Being proactive begins with consulting an experienced, aggressive criminal defense attorney.
What Are the Various Internet Sex Crimes?
The Legal Differences between Assault and Battery
Although you often hear the term assault and battery as one phrase, they are actually very different. Assault is one thing and battery is another. If someone has been battered, they have likely been assaulted as well, although the reverse is not necessarily true. What is true is that there are a variety of different circumstances that can give rise to charges of assault and/or battery, and the potential penalties depend on the facts of each case.
Assault and Battery Defined
In general, assault is defined as something which causes another person to fear imminent bodily harm. No physical contact is necessary for a person to be assaulted. Assault charges are often pursued in civil court, along with battery charges or independently.
In Wisconsin, Battery charges carry varying levels of criminal fines and penalties, and there are many types of battery in Wisconsin. The term battery is generally defined as the use of force against someone with the intent to injure them. There are special provisions governing your case if you are charged with aggravated battery, battery against an unborn child, or battery against a witness, judge, or other public figure. Because the terms assault and battery are used so loosely and interchangeably in the general public, and can mean so many different things even under the law, it is crucial that you have an experienced Milwaukee criminal defense attorney by your side to aggressively defend you.
What Happens When Minors Are Injured in Car Accidents?
The statistics on children aged 14 and younger in car accidents are grim. In 2012 in the United States, there were 33,561 fatalities due to traffic accidents, and children aged 14 and younger accounted for three percent of the fatalities (1,168). There were also 169,000 children aged 14 and under injured in car accidents in 2012, and motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death for children aged 4, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Wisconsin is not immune from these incidents, and many Milwaukee families find themselves unsure as to what to do when their minor child is injured in an accident.
Bringing a Lawsuit
The good news is that you do have recourse if your child sustains injuries in a car accident. A child who is injured because of the negligence of another driver has his or her own cause of action. This allows minors to maintain lawsuits for their injuries, including medical expenses and any other out-of-pocket costs.
What You Need to Know about Field Sobriety Tests
If you are pulled over and the police suspect you are operating your vehicle under the influence of alcohol, you will likely be asked to perform field sobriety tests. The three tests most commonly used by law enforcement in Wisconsin and nationwide to determine if you are operating your vehicle while intoxicated (OWI), in order of reliability are; the horizontal gaze nystagmus, the walk and turn, and the one leg stand. If administered properly, each test can help law enforcement determine if a driver is under the influence of alcohol or other drugs,.
The Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN)
An HGN test is the most accurate of all of the field sobriety tests, with a 77 percent accuracy rate in detecting high blood alcohol content (BAC). Nystagmus means involuntary jerking or bouncing of the eyeball, with pupils appearing to be pulled back towards the center of the eye. This can be caused by several things, most notably alcohol use. It can also happen as a result of certain drugs that depress the central nervous system. The higher the concentration of blood or alcohol in the blood, the more noticeable the nystagmus is.
Traffic Stops: Were You Pulled over by the Police without Justification?
One of the first questions your criminal defense attorney will ask you when you seek help for an arrest stemming from a traffic stop is why the police pulled you over in the first place. No matter if you have been arrested for drug charges, drunk driving charges, gun charges, or for any other reason, the police must have a constitutionally valid reason to stop you in the first place. If the police did not have a constitutionally valid reason to make the stop, any evidence found can be suppressed, which can often lead to dismissal of your charges.
Recent Legal Developments
The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in an opinion published July 14, 2015, has opined that any time the police have a reasonable suspicion that traffic laws have been or are being violated, then a justifiable traffic stop can be made. In Wisconsin v. Houghton, a police officer pulled a Wisconsin resident over after observing the car he was driving was missing the front license plate, and because there was an air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror and a GPS on the front windshield. The officer then allegedly smelled marijuana as he approached the vehicle, and after searching the car found 240 grams of the substance.
Defending against Sexual Assault
Charges of sexual assault are very serious and should not be taken lightly. Aside from their seriousness, they are also embarrassing and carry stigma that will follow you the rest of your life, even if you are innocent of the accusations.
Wisconsin law has different categories of sexual assault, but it is generally defined as non-consensual sexual intercourse, through the threat of force, violence, pregnancy or that causes great bodily harm. The most commonly known form of sexual assault is rape. Sexual assault charges carry hefty penalties depending on the degree:
- First degree sexual assault is a Class B felony, which carries up to 60 years in prison;
- Second degree sexual assault is a Class C felony, which carries up to 40 years in prison and/or up to $100,000 in fines;
- Third degree sexual assault is a Class G felony, which carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and up to $25,000 in fines, or both; and
Dealing with Insurance Companies after a Car Accident
You don’t think much about your car insurance company until you have been in a car accident. But, once you have had an accident, you will be dealing with them and any insurance company that insures the other driver, a lot. When the cause of an accident is clear, people often mistakenly think dealing with the insurance companies should not be a big deal.
Does Your Insurance Company Represent You?
The most important thing for you to realize is that no insurance company technically represents you in your car accident case. Even your own car insurance company is looking after their own interests. Insurance companies are for-profit organizations that do not make profits by paying out more than necessary in car accident claims.
