July 7, 2010 – Family Law Casenotes and Quotes has been an indispensable resource in making family-law cases more accessible and understandable for hundreds of Wisconsin attorneys and judges over the past 20 years. The book’s authors – attorney/mediator Thomas A. Bailey of Whitefish Bay and circuit court commissioner Laura Lau of Waukesha County – have updated the book regularly three times a year and have now revised the book in a second edition, published by State Bar PINNACLE Books, in June 2010.
The format of the casenotes has changed slightly in the revised edition, but the publication’s essential features remain the same. Organized chronologically – collecting published Wisconsin family law cases decided since the Divorce Reform Act of 1977 – Family Law Casenotes and Quotes sets out concise summaries of each included case and provides quotations from the most significant passages from the case opinions. (The book also includes noteworthy, citable unpublished Wisconsin Court of Appeals opinions issued after July 1, 2009, as well as some significant federal cases.)
Bolded subject terms (e.g., “Custody – Legal Standard” or “Maintenance – Factors”) relating to the pertinent case discussions appear directly above the quoted passages from each case. An index consolidates the subject terms from all the cases into an alphabetized list at the back of the book for quick reference, so that a reader looking for a case on a given topic (e.g., paternity) can find all the cases in the book to which each subject term has been assigned. The index is significantly revised for the 2010 edition of Family Law Casenotes and Quotes, to make on-point topics even easier to find. The book also includes a table of judges, identifying the cases each specific circuit court and appellate judge has decided, enabling readers to analyze the opinions of that particular judge.
Although the emphasis of Family Law Casenotes and Quotes is on quotations from the courts’ original decisions, and on the decisions’ key topics, the book also includes editorial notes at the end of many casenotes, primarily explaining recent legislative developments – including the renumbering of sections in the Wisconsin Family Code, as part of its recodification in 2007 – that have occurred since the opinions were originally decided.
Family Law Casenotes and Quotes is available to members for $140. Purchasers who subscribe to the State Bar of Wisconsin’s auto-supplementation service will receive future updates for 10 percent off the regular price. This title is also available to members in an electronic format as part of the State Bar’s new online library, Books UnBoundTM, for $129 for a one-year subscription. (This online title is automatically available to Books UnBoundTM subscribers who already have subscriptions to the full Books UnBoundTM library.) Order Family Law Casenotes and Quotes. For more information, contact the State Bar at (800) 728-7788 or (608) 257-3838.
