Learning Activity Packet

Cite Wisconsin Case Law

Purpose:

Once Wisconsin case law is found and validated, it must be cited in its proper form for use in legal briefs, memos, or other legal documents. Appropriately cited, Wisconsin case law can easily be found and analyzed to support your argument, or disprove your opponent’s argument.

Performance objectives:

Given 2 improperly cited Wisconsin case law examples, and 2 passages containing information about a case, correctly cite using parallel citation form. To master this module, a score of 4 out of 4 (100%) must be achieved on activity sheet 3.1.

Enabling Objectives.

1. Identify the components of Wisconsin case law citations.

2. List the books that publish the cases, their abbreviations, and what years they cover.

3. Cite Wisconsin case law.

Legal Research

Content Outline

A. What makes up a legal citation

1. The case name

a. Plaintiff v. defendant

b. Format

2. The books

a. Wisconsin Reporter

b. North Western Reporter

3. The Court level if applicable

4. The Year.

5. Cases after January 1, 2000.

a. Case name

b. Year

c. Court

d. Docket number

B. The difference in the books.

1. Wisconsin Reporter

a. Years of publication

b. Official publication of Wisconsin

c. How to cite it.

2. North Western Reporter

a. Years of publication

b. Regional publication for Wisconsin.

c. How to cite it.

C. Cite Wisconsin Case law.

References:

1. The Legal research Manual, A game plan for Legal Research Analysis, 2^nd edition, Wren, Christopher G., Wren Jill Robinson, Adams and Ambrose, Madison WI, 1988.

2. The Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Review Ass’n et al. eds., 17^th ed. 2000).

3. Wisconsin Lawyer, Volume 72, Number 12, December 1999, Legal Writing, Using the New Public Domain Citation System.
TASK: Cite Wisconsin Case Law

PERFORMANCE

OBJECTIVE:

Given 2 improperly cited Wisconsin Case Law examples, and 2 passages containing information about a case, correctly cite using parallel citation form. To master this module, a score of 4 out of 4 (100%) must be achieved on activity sheet 3.1.

ENABLING OBECTIVE 1:

Identify the components of Wisconsin Case Law citations.

Information sheet 1.1 Components of WI Case Law.

Once Wisconsin case law is found and validated, we must cite it in its proper form to use it in legal briefs, memos, or other legal documents. When it is in its proper form, it can easily be found so that it can be analyzed to support our argument, or disprove our opponent’s argument.

But you ask, what does that mean, proper form? Proper form informs the reader of where you received your information, in a concise manner. We do this so that the lawyer you did the research for, the opposing party, and the judge can review the case. The reason you want them to find the case and review it, is Wisconsin’s legal system, and the Federal legal system (excluding Louisiana) is based on precedents. Precedents are a judicial decision that may be used as a standard in subsequent similar cases.

What makes a legal citation?

The legal citation consists of many components that must be adhered to in order to be efficient. The components are as follows, the case name, the books, the court level if applicable, and the year the case was either published or issued. Each component has its own set of rules that we have to follow also.

The case name.

The case name consists of the names of the parties. The parties to an action are the Plaintiff and Defendant. The Plaintiff is the one who brings action against or initiates an action on another party. The Defendant is defending against the action brought against him/her. So essentially it is the Plaintiff versus Defendant.

How is that written though? Well let’s start with the Plaintiff and Defendant. It is the Plaintiff’s and Defendant’s last name, unless the Defendant is a business entity, then it is the whole name of the company. For example, John Brown is suing (bringing action against) Steve Smith. This would be written as “Brown v. Smith,”. This part of the citation is always underlined, and ends with a comma. However, the comma is not underlined. The versus is always abbreviated as a v followed by a period. This is the proper form for the case name.

The Books

Where can these cases be found? There are only 2 books that will have the cases in them. They are the Wisconsin Reporter and the North Western Reporter. The format for citing the books is always the same. It starts with the volume number of that book, followed by the abbreviation of that book, and finally the page number the case starts on. For example, the case is published in volume 232 of the Wisconsin Reporter second series and starts on page 455. That looks like this, “232 Wis. 2d 455” .

For the complete citation we would cite it with what is called parallel citation form. Simply that means that we cite to the official book first, and then where it can be found in the non-official book, or regional reporter. We have to cite to both books for numerous reasons. However, those reasons will be covered in more detail later. For example, we know where the case is published in the Wisconsin Reporter (from above). The same case is in the North Western Reporter volume number 450 starting on page 747. The parallel citation would look like this: 232 Wis. 2d 455, 450 N.W.2d 747.

The Year

What year was the case published or decided? The only difference in this the court that it comes from. If it is a Supreme Court decision, the citation year is the year that it is issued. Whereas a Court of Appeals decision is the year that it is published. The reason that the Supreme Court is different is that this court has sessions. The sessions run from October to July of the next year. For example, the Supreme Court hears a case in December of 1998, and issues its decision in February of 1999. Because it was issued in 1999 and not in 1998 when it was heard, the year cited would be 1999. So the citation in this case would (1999).

So let’s put it all together now.

Brown v. Smith, 232 Wis. 2d 455, 450 N.W.2d 747 (1999).

A citation always ends with a period. This example illustrates a Supreme Court decision. But what if it were a Court of Appeals case? Then it would look like this

Brown v. Smith, 232 Wis. 2d 455, 450 N.W.2d 747 (Ct. App. 1999).

Cases after January 1, 2000.

Wisconsin has adopted a public domain citation format for cases after January 1, 2000. In addition to the case name, each Wisconsin public domain citation will consist of three elements:

1) The year

2) The court designation (either WI, or WI App)

3) A sequential number assigned by the clerk of court's office.

For Wisconsin Supreme Court cases, the year will be the year the opinion is issued, and the court designation will be WI. The citation still needs to be followed by a period.

To illustrate this, lets say it was issued in 2001, and case number 42 of that year. The parallel citation would look like this.

Brown v. Smith, 2001 WI 42, 232 Wis. 2d 455, 450 N.W.2d 747.

Again, what about the Court of Appeals? Well we use the example from above again, but this time it was the 42 case to be heard that year. Then it would look like this

Brown v. Smith, 2001 WI App 42, 232 Wis. 2d 455, 450 N.W.2d 747.

Activity Sheet 1.2 Components of WI Case Law

1. What are the components of a Wisconsin case law legal citation?

2. What is the format of the case name?

3. What is the format of the book to be cited?

4. What must every citation end with?

5. Explain the difference in the citation form of Public Domain format to the citation form prior to Jan. 1, 2000.

Activity Sheet 1.3 Answer Sheet: Components of WI Case Law

1. What are the components of a Wisconsin case law legal citation?

2. What is the format of the case name?

Plaintiff’s last name v. Defendant’s last name,

Must be underlined, v for versus followed by a period, and ending with a coma where the coma is not underlined. Defendant’s last name may be substituted with a company’s full name if it is a company.

3. What is the format of the book to be cited?

It starts with the volume number of that book, followed by the abbreviation of that book, and finally the page number the case starts on.

Ex. 232 Wis. 2d 455, 450 N.W.2d 747

4. What must every citation end with?

A period.

5. Explain the difference in the citation form of Public Domain format to the citation form prior to Jan. 1, 2000.

Main difference is where the year is positioned. Then it also has WI or WI App for court designation instead of no designation for Supreme Court, and Ct. App. for Court of Appeals.

TASK: Cite Wisconsin Case Law

PERFORMANCE

OBJECTIVE:

ENABLING OBECTIVE 2:

List the books that publish the cases, their abbreviations, and what years they cover.

Chart 2.1B

But that doesn’t explain the reason for parallel citation you may say. Well, the reason we do parallel citation for the most part is out of professional courtesy. The other reasons are so that the judge, opposing party, and your boss may find the case easily for we do not know what books are available to them. Furthermore, the last thing you want to do, is have a judge to look to far for a case to read, thereby becoming upset with the firm you work for.

Activity sheet 2.2 The Books and their abbreviations

1. What is the proper why to cite the book:

Wisconsin Reporter

North Western Reporter

Wisconsin Reporter Second edition

North Western Reporter Second edition

2. In what year did the Wisconsin Reporter and North Western Reporter change editions?

3. What was the reason for the change in editions?

4. List the main reason for doing parallel citation.

Activity sheet 2.3 The Books and their abbreviations

1. What is the proper why to cite the book:

Wisconsin Reporter Wis.

North Western Reporter N.W.

Wisconsin Reporter Second edition Wis. 2d

North Western Reporter Second edition N.W.2d

2. In what year did the Wisconsin Reporter and North Western Reporter change editions?

1978

3. What was the reason for the change in editions?

They started to publish the Court of Appeals decisions.

4. List the main reason for doing parallel citation.

The main reason for parallel citation is out of professional courtesy

Furthermore, the last thing you want to do, is have a judge to look to far for a case to read, thereby becoming upset with the firm you work for

TASK: Cite Wisconsin Case Law

PERFORMANCE

OBJECTIVE:

ENABLING OBECTIVE 3:

Cite Wisconsin case law.

For questions 3 and 4, read the passage and put the relevant information into parallel citation form.

1. 1999, 226 Wis. 2d 235, 593 N.W. 2d 445, Wausau Title, Inc. v. County Concrete Corp.

2. 369 N.W. 2d 755, Waters v. U.S. Fidelity Mutual Insurance Co., Ct. App. 1985, 124 Wis. 2d 275.

3. Grando brought suit against Sentry Insurance and it went past the court of appeals to the supreme court. The Supreme Court heard and ruled on this case in 1999. It can be found in the Wisconsin Reporter at page 794, volume 228 and in the North Western Reporter at page 62 volume 599.

4. In 2001 the court of appeals heard and ruled on case number 82. This case involved the defendant Positive Safety Manufacturing, who is our potential client. The Plaintiff, Matthies said, “ I fell two stories, and landed on my back. If the guard rail that I was climbing on, would have been up to industry standards, I would not have fallen and injured my back.” This case is in the 628^th volume of the North Western reporter starting at page 842. In the 244^th volume of the Wisconsin Reporter, the case starts at page 720 but ends on page 735.

1. Wausau Title, Inc. v. County Concrete Corp., 226 Wis. 2d 235, 593 N.W. 2d 445 (1999).

2. Waters v. U.S. Fidelity Mutual Insurance Co., 124 Wis. 2d 275, 369 N.W. 2d 755 (Ct. App. 1985).

4. Matthies v. Positive Safety Manufacturing, 2001 WI App 82, 244 Wis. 2d 720, 628 N.W. 2d 842.

Wisconsin Reports	1853-date	Wis., Wis.2d
North Western Reporter	1879-date	N.W., N.W.2d
Pinney	1839-1852	Pin.
Chandler	1849-1852	Chand.
Burnett	1842-1843	Bur.
Burnett	1841	Bur.

Wisconsin Reports	1978-date	Wis.2d
North Western Reporter	1978-date	N.W.2d