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Recent Blog Posts
Following Motorcycle Laws in Wisconsin Help Keep Drivers Safe
Motorcycle drivers face special challenges when on the road. Without the use of safety restraints or a car’s structure to possibly protect them, their performance when driving is extra important. However, knowing the motorcycle laws of Wisconsin can help keep drivers safe.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WDOT) has created a 51-page handbook for motorcycle owners with explanation of laws of the road and safety prevention information. The document contains several powerful statistics from 2012 that have affected motorcyclists and other drivers on the road. They include findings of:
- 2,398 injured motorcyclists;
- 136 non-motorcyclists injured in motorcycle-related accidents;
Miranda Warning for Defendants in Wisconsin
The U.S. Constitution provides people who are taken into police custody with a variety of rights, including the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney. However, because of the complex legal nature of these rights, the Supreme Court has required officers to read a short explanation of these rights to people being taken into custody. This warning is known as a Miranda warning because the Court introduced it in the case Miranda v. Arizona.
It is important for people in custody to recognize when they are getting their Miranda warning because once they have been informed of their rights they may accidentally waive them. The Miranda warning varies from place to place, but it will generally sound like this: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Knowing and understanding your rights as I have read them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present.”
White Collar Crime and Fish Shredding
For many people, the mention of white collar crime conjures up images of corporate executives undertaking shady accounting practices and then shredding their paper trail. White collar crime does not normally bring to mind fishermen and fishing regulations, but the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case, Yates v. U.S., that could expand a major law against white collar crime to other arenas. Depending on which way the case comes out, it could have important implications for how the federal government handles criminal law.
Yates v. U.S.
The defendant in the case is a fisherman who was out catching red grouper. His boat was stopped and his catch was inspected because it is only legal to catch red grouper above a certain size. The inspector on the boat found fish that were too small, and he ordered the defendant to bring his boat in to shore so that the fish could be seized. During the trip to shore, the defendant destroyed the offending fish and replaced them with others in an attempt to avoid prosecution. Now he has been brought up on charges related to white collar crime and the destruction of evidence, colloquially known as the “anti-shredding law.”
Probable Cause and the Scent of Alcohol
Drunk driving charges can have serious consequences that follow a person for the rest of his or her life. For instance, a person with three or more OWI convictions is subject to a reduced blood alcohol concentration (BAC) standard. Ordinarily, this limit is 0.08, but those with more convictions are subject to a 0.02 limit. This means that even a single drink could put a person over the legal limit.
This reduced BAC limit leads to a unique issue with regard to searches and preliminary breath tests for alcohol. Police need some sort of “probable cause” in order to request a preliminary breath test. Normally, this standard is somewhat strenuous for the police, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled in the case State v. Goss that the mere scent of alcohol is enough to test a person with three or more convictions for OWI.
Proper Documents Needed for Auto Accident Claim in Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation reported 109,385 total crashes and 39,369 injuries in its last crash report in 2012. Car accidents occur unexpectedly and even if there are no injuries involved, an accident can still prove to be painful due to unforeseen costs, hassle, and stress.
There are several details that go into filing an auto accident claim, which include requesting reports, gathering information from medical providers, and ensuring that all of documents are received and recorded in a timely manner. Wisconsin maintains a statute of limitations on recovering personal injury damages that cannot exceed three years from the date of the accident.
Increase in Car Accidents Predicted for Holiday Season
Last year the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel named Highway 100, northwest Milwaukee, and area malls as having intersections with the most car accidents in Milwaukee County from 2007-2011. It should come as no surprise that the high volume of cars in mall parking lots is what has led to the annually high number of crashes. With the upcoming holiday season inviting an influx of shoppers, collisions should remain constant as reflected in recent years.
Fender benders are common in congested places and what might seem like a minor accident can turn into a major headache down the road. Understanding the claim process is helpful in order to correctly gather all pertinent information necessary for requesting compensation for damages.
Drivers who have been involved in a car accident need to collect all documentation of the incident, including any records pertaining to required medical care. There is a statute of limitations when filing a claim that personal injury victims should also keep in mind.
Civil Asset Forfeiture: The Police's Right to Confiscate Property
While there are a variety of legitimate reasons for police to seize property associated with criminal activities, these sorts of seizure laws are ripe for abuse if not properly supervised. A disturbing nationwide trend of police improperly seizing property under “civil asset forfeiture” laws has recently been garnering a large amount of media attention. These laws allow police to seize a person's property on suspicion that it was involved in criminal activity, and then force the people to engage in an expensive fight to recover the property. In fact, there have even been multiple documented instances of Wisconsin police seizing money from people who were trying to use the cash to bail their loved ones out of prison.
The Discovery Process in Personal Injury Cases
Many people have a mistaken belief that much of a lawyer's job is done during the trial, examining witnesses, talking to the jury, and convincing the judge that their side is right. While these skills are certainly important, focusing on them ignores all the groundwork that goes into a case before trial, and it ignores the fact that over 90 percent of cases settle without ever getting to a trial.
In fact, much of the work a lawyer does happens before the trial ever starts during the “discovery phase” of the lawsuit. During this phase the lawyers exchange information with each other to help both sides build the best case. This lets lawyers go into a trial in a way that avoids any surprises, and allows them to orchestrate the best case possible. This can be especially important in personal injury cases where one side often has much more information on what happened than the other.
Probable Cause and Warrant Requirements
Law enforcement officers are often allowed a surprising amount of leeway with the truth during the course of an investigation, but a new case involving the FBI in Las Vegas may greatly expand that power, creating serious privacy concerns in the process. In the case, FBI agents cut off the internet connection into a person's home, and then posed as repairmen coming to fix it. The entire purpose of the exercise was to circumvent the need to get a warrant before searching the home because the agents did not think they had enough evidence to get one.
The Case
The case involves a gambler who was in Las Vegas after being caught in Macau running an illegal sports betting operation. The FBI was concerned that he was doing the same thing in Las Vegas, but they had no other evidence of that beyond the incident in Macau. They wanted to search the hotel villa the man was staying in for more evidence, but they did not think they had enough for a warrant.
Bad Weather and Traffic Accident Liability
Winter is coming, which means that inclement weather is on the way. According to the Federal Highway Administration, it also means a spike in traffic accidents. While Wisconsin drivers are familiar with driving in ice and snow, they may not be so familiar with the legal ramifications for it, particularly if there is an accident. Although many drivers are content to blame the increase in accidents during bad weather on the weather itself, the law is not so forgiving. Courts still often assign fault to one of the drivers in these traffic accidents, so it is important for drivers to understand their duties in bad weather.
Traffic Accidents during Bad Weather
The issue that many drivers face in bad weather is that they do not understand the difference between speeding and “excessive speed.” Speeding is a traffic violation that involves going faster than the posted speed limits. Those speed limits were designed with dry, clear weather in mind, so it is entirely possible to be going the speed limit and still be going too fast under the law.
