Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
2017 WISCONSIN ACT 67 MAKES MAJOR CHANGES TO WISCONSIN LAND USE LAW
Stafford Rosenbaum LLP has received a Tier 1 ranking in the 2016 Edition of U.S. News - Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms." Tier 1 rankings are determined through a firm's overall evaluation, which is derived from a combination of clients' impressive feedback, the high regard that lawyers in other firms have for the firm, in addition to the information provided through the Law Firm Survey.
Filed Under: Municipal Law
Court of Appeals Decides Wis. Stat., Ch. 90, Applies Equally to Cities, Villages, and Towns
Stafford Rosenbaum's Thomas Solheim was recently elected to the Madison Regional Economic Partnership’s Board of Directors. The Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) works in the spirit of collaboration to ensure resources are available to the people and organizations that do business in the Madison region, helping the area continue the tradition of delivering first-rate products and services to the world.
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Discharged Police Officer Has No Constitutional Entitlement to Pay During Pendency of His Appeal
As we reported in November 2016, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Milwaukee City Board of Fire and Police Commissioners (“Board”) to terminate the employment of Milwaukee Police Department (“MPD”) Officer Daniel Vidmar for falsifying a document to take possession of an unclaimed dirt bike from MPD inventory. While Officer Vidmar […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Wisconsin Court of Appeals Upholds Municipal Snowplowing Against Public Purpose Doctrine Challenge
The Town of Argonne is a small community in northern Wisconsin, near Michigan’s upper peninsula. For more than 60 years, the Town has removed snow from residents’ private driveways upon request. The Town handled snow removal pursuant to contracts, funding the work through fees paid for the service and not through tax revenues. The Town’s […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Wisconsin Supreme Court Holds Municipalities Are Subject to Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law
In a shocking decision that will increase the cost of local governance and limit the ability of local governments to control their own affairs, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held last week that the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law (“WFDL”) applies to municipalities. Benson v. City of Madison, 2017 WI 65. The remainder of this post discusses […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Wisconsin Supreme Court Reaffirms Bright-Line Building Permit Rule
In McKee Family I, LLC and JD McCormick Company, LLC v. City of Fitchburg, 2017 WI 34, No. 2014AP1914 (April 12, 2017), the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the bright-line building permit rule, under which a property owner cannot claim vested rights absent submission of an application for a building permit that conforms to the zoning […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
U.S. Supreme Court Reaffirms Capacious Scope of Federal Fair Housing Act
The Supreme Court of the United States recently decided Bank of America Corp. v. City of Miami, Nos. 15-1111 & 15-1112, slip op. (U.S. May 1, 2017). The Court remanded the case for further proceedings, and it remains far from clear whether the City can prevail in the end. But the case illustrates the striking […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Court of Appeals Reaffirms Parties Cannot Recover Lost Profits for Unlawful Activity
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently decided 200 Broadway LLC v. City of Milwaukee, Case No. 2016AP273 (May 2, 2017). The decision is interesting both for its central holding that a party is not entitled to damages for lost profits from an unlawful business, and because the appellate court relied heavily on nineteenth century precedent. […]
Filed Under: Municipal Law
Top 10 Municipal Law Developments of 2016
Ted Waskowski, Partner, and Kyle W. Engelke, Senior Associate, at Stafford Rosenbaum LLP will present at the 2019 Municipal Attorneys Institute in June. Their presentation will be titled The 60-Year Holy(tz) War: A Report from the Front in the Latest Wisconsin Supreme Court Battle Over Wisconsin’s Governmental Immunity Standard.
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Seventh Circuit Decision Calls for Class Action Reform
Stafford Rosenbaum LLP partner and board member, James Egle, has been recognized as a 2019 Leader in the Law by the Wisconsin Law Journal. The annual recognition goes to attorneys who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, expertise, and community involvement while maintaining a full career highlighted by achievement and pro bono service. Recipients of this distinguished award will be honored at an event on February 21, 2019 in Milwaukee, WI.
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Seventh Circuit reaffirms that issue preclusion applies to United States government
Three Stafford Rosenbaum attorneys have been selected for "Best Lawyers 2016 Lawyer of the Year." Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year,” making this accolade particularly significant. Lawyers being honored as “Lawyer of the Year” are selected based on particularly impressive voting averages received during the exhaustive peer-review assessments we conduct with thousands of leading lawyers each year.
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Court of Appeals Affirms Police Officer’s Discharge After Taking Unclaimed Property
Johanna J. Allex has been elected to the law firm of Stafford Rosenbaum’s Board of Directors. Ms. Allex is a partner in the firm’s Madison office where her practice covers all aspects of estate planning and estate administration, marital property law, business succession planning, and tax-exempt organization planning and operations.
Filed Under: Municipal Law
Court Prevents County from Regulating Private Underage Drinking Parties
Stafford Rosenbaum LLP is pleased to announce that James I. Statz has been named the firm’s Business Law Team Leader. Statz’s practice includes extensive experience handling highly complex real estate transactions, which routinely involve negotiations with municipalities, lenders, investors, and buyers—as well as zoning laws and many levels of government regulation.
Filed Under: Municipal Law
Seventh Circuit Holds that Municipality Did Not Violate Business’s Constitutional Rights
In Black Earth Meat Market, LLC v. Village of Black Earth, No. 15-3818 (7th Cir. Aug. 24, 2016), the Seventh Circuit held that the Village of Black Earth’s efforts to close a slaughterhouse, which included threatened litigation to abate an alleged nuisance, did not violate due process or equal protection. In 2001, Black Earth Meat […]
Filed Under: Municipal Law
ENFORCEMENT OF MUNICIPAL SIGN ORDINANCES: JUDGE POSNER SENDS A MESSAGE
By definition, dissenting opinions have no precedential value. Yet they can provide important perspectives into the judges who decide to write them and the manner and direction in which the law might evolve. An example may be Seventh Circuit Judge Posner’s dissent in Construction and General Laborers’ Local No. 330 v. Town of Grand Chute, […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Wisconsin Courts Apply Recent US Supreme Court Decision in OWI Refusal Cases
The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Birchfield v. North Dakota, 579 U.S. ___, 2016 U.S. LEXIS 4058 (June 23, 2016) only weeks ago. More information on the Birchfield decision is available here. In the brief time since Birchfield was decided, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has already issued multiple opinions interpreting Wisconsin’s […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
How Will Wis. Stat. § 895.463 Affect Disputes Over the Validity of Zoning Regulations?
A new statutory provision adopted as part of 2015 Wisconsin Act 391 asserts that, in any dispute, “the court shall resolve an ambiguity in the meaning of a word or phrase in a zoning ordinance or shoreland zoning ordinance in favor of the free use of private property.” Wis. Stat. §895.463. On its face, this […]
Filed Under: Appellate Law Municipal Law
Wisconsin Supreme Court Favors Dodgeville on Retroactivity Question in Property Tax Litigation
This week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of the City of Dodgeville, represented by Stafford Rosenbaum, in a major procedural dispute related to property tax litigation between the City and Lands’ End. Lands’ End, Inc. v. City of Dodgeville, 2016 WI 64. The Court’s decision affirms the plain text of the statute governing […]
