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Negligence and Traffic Laws in Wisconsin
Many people's first experience with the legal system comes by way of a traffic accident. In fact, with over a hundred thousand accidents every year, according to statistics published by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, everyone is likely to be in multiple traffic accidents over the course of their lives. Some people may wonder about what good traffic laws are if there are still so many accidents, but it turns out that, in addition to preventing accidents, traffic laws are also useful during traffic accident lawsuits. This is because an accident victim must show that the person who injured them was “negligent” in order to recover, and showing that someone violated traffic laws is a good way of showing negligence.
Wisconsin Implements Alcohol Biomarker Testing
The state of Wisconsin is pursuing a new method of curbing repeat offenses for drunk driving. State officials are going to begin testing people with repeat OWI convictions for “alcohol biomarkers.” These are residual molecules that can show the history of a person's drinking. The idea is to use these biomarkers to attempt to identify people who are at a higher risk for continuing to drive drunk. Some research from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee already suggests that these sorts of tests, combined with computer analytics, can help predict people's drunk driving tendencies.
What Alcohol Biomarker Testing Is
Alcohol biomarkers are a new type of test designed to determine a person's long-term drinking history. Ordinary alcohol tests check for the presence of alcohol in the blood, but alcohol only lasts in the blood for a matter of hours before it is gone. This makes it impossible to learn about a person's alcohol intake by directly testing for alcohol. However, alcohol does not simply vanish from the blood. Instead, it is metabolized. This means that the body converts the molecules of alcohol into other molecules. These molecules last much longer in the body, finding their way into the drinker's fingernails, which a chemist can then examine.
Understanding Computer Crime
From laptops to smartphones, computers have become a ubiquitous part of nearly everyone's lives. People commonly joke that people have more computing power in their pockets today than NASA did when landing someone on the moon. As much as computers are helpful in everyday life, they have also created a new vulnerability, computer crime. Computer thieves, who are commonly referred to as hackers or crackers, can lift a person's account data out of a computer from across the country. Even massive, well-funded corporations like Sony can be targeted by such attacks. This sort of crime required a new type of law to protect against it. To that end, Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 1986, and have updated it six times over the years in order to better suit the rapidly changing technological landscape.
Aerial Surveillance and Traffic Tickets
Drivers on Wisconsin roads who hear a plane overhead may want to take a second to check their speedometers. They might find that those planes are Wisconsin State Patrol flights, an aerial surveillance unit that works with officers on the ground to dole out tickets to unsuspecting drivers. The surveillance missions have led to the issuance of thousands of traffic tickets. Of course, there are certain areas that are more likely to see this sort of aerial surveillance, so motorists should be aware of when they are particularly likely to encounter these aerial patrols.
Aerial Surveillance Statistics
The state highway patrol's aircraft surveillance program has been highly effective at helping officers on the ground issue traffic tickets. Last year, officers conducted over 2,600 traffic stops as a result of tips from the aerial surveillance crew, according to a report. These stops resulted in over 1800 speeding tickets, but speeding is not all that aerial surveillance crews watch for. They also check for other traffic violations such as tailgating, and they look for more serious crimes. Aerial surveillance units have made numerous drug and felony arrests as a result of their unique vantage point.
Truth in Politics Laws
It is not a controversial statement to say that advertisers often stretch the truth, but the law does place limits on what they can say. A company that spins the facts too much may risk a lawsuit because of false advertising and unfair competition. The lawsuit can come from either the FTC or from a competitor. Interestingly, a similar law exists in Wisconsin with regard to politics. Statute 12.05 makes it a crime to “knowingly make . . . a false representation pertaining to a candidate . . . to affect voting at an election.” Yet, these truth in politics laws are often difficult to enforce because of the First Amendment concerns that they raise. Still, a Wisconsin state assembly race may give rise to a criminal case under that statute
The State Assembly Race
The Crime of Battery in Wisconsin
Battery is one of the more common crimes prosecuted is Wisconsin. However, just because it is common does not mean that it is trivial. Whether it started as a bar fight, self-defense, or just a momentary lapse, the crime of battery charge can have serious consequences, if it is not handled properly. Consequently, people should understand how Wisconsin Law defines the different levels of battery, along with the potential defenses that may be available to them, which may range from consent by the other side to acting in self-defense.
What Constitutes Battery
Although the crime of battery is often discussed as though it were a single crime, there are actually a variety of levels to it under Wisconsin law. The lowest level of battery is simple battery, a Class A misdemeanor that the law defines as intentionally causing bodily harm to another person. The extra levels of battery increase in severity as the harm and the intent behind it get more serious. For instance, if a person causes great bodily harm, but only intends to cause bodily harm, then the crime gets upgraded to a Class H felony, but if the person intended to cause great bodily harm in addition to actually causing it, then the crime is a Class E felony.
Emotional Distress: Legal Claims for the Pain of a Loved One
It is never easy to go through the loss or severe injury of a loved one in an accident, and no amount of compensation can fully heal them. However, the law does offer a variety of claims to ensure that the careless people responsible for their injuries are held responsible. One important claim that is discussed less than some of the others is the negligent infliction of emotional distress. Claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress allow people to recover for the emotional pain that they suffer from watching their loved one be involved in a severe accident. Yet, it is important for claimants to note that these types of claims are somewhat controversial, so the law places limitations on their use.
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress
Hazing Law in Wisconsin
Hazing, bullying done to people in order to initiate them into an organization, was once thought of as a bit of harmless fun that helped people build camaraderie. However, it has since become clear to state governments that hazing can actually have serious consequences, and can even result in the death of students when it gets out of hand. As a result, states, including Wisconsin, have passed laws criminalizing hazing. These laws take very different view of what qualifies as hazing and what the penalties can be. It is important for people in positions of authority to understand the Wisconsin law on hazing and the penalties that it imposes.
What Hazing Is
Although people may have an intuitive sense of what hazing is, people should understand the long list of actions that can qualify as hazing under Wisconsin's law. The law prohibits any act that intentionally or recklessly puts a student's physical well-being in danger in order to initiate them into an organization. The law also includes an extensive list of examples such as physical brutality like whipping or beating, forced consumption of substances like food or alcohol, or forced confinement. However, the list is merely a set of examples and the law may apply to more than just that conduct.
A Primer on Securities Fraud
With an ever-growing number of public financial scandals, white collar criminal prosecutions are becoming a larger and larger part of the federal criminal caseload. Although white collar crime is a broad umbrella that can implicate many different kinds of activity, one of the most common white collar crimes is securities fraud. However, referring to securities fraud as a single crime is somewhat misleading. The statute that covers it actually uses it as an umbrella term for different types of fraud related to financial instruments. Two of the most important types of securities fraud are the misrepresentation of material information related to the security and insider trading.
Material Misrepresentations
One of the most common types of securities fraud is through material misrepresentations. The securities law makes it a federal crime to be dishonest about facts about a company that would be important to investors. Both people inside and outside of a company can run afoul of this law. From within the company, one of the most common ways to do it is through falsified filings. For instance, if a company inflates its earnings, reporting them as being higher than they actually are, then they could be charged with securities fraud, especially if the company later enters bankruptcy despite reporting strong profits.
How Daylight Savings Time Affects Your Car Accident Risk
Recently, the country, like many around the world, sprung forward into daylight savings time, and in doing so increased drivers' risk for suffering a serious car accident. The spring adjustment for daylight savings time subtracts an hour from everyone's sleep, and some research suggests that the change in sleep patterns makes people less attentive drivers. This, along with other potential health concerns, has led to suggestions to remove daylight savings from the calendar, since it no longer serves its original purpose. Yet, some other research suggests that it may actually have beneficial safety effects from a traffic perspective.
Why Have Daylight Savings Time
In some sense, people observed daylight savings time for much of human history since strict scheduling and precise times were not kept. Instead, farmers would simply adjust their schedules based on sunrise and sunset. However, the advent of trains, which crossed the country and ran on precise schedules, led to a standardization of times across the world. This created problems because the standard times would not always line up well with the daylight.
