May 6, 2015 – You may have the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau’s most recently printed Wisconsin statutes, but are you sure you’ve got the current Wisconsin Rules of Appellate Procedure?
The statutes are reprinted every two years, but the rules can (and do) change faster than that. Updated in 2015, the Wisconsin Rules of Appellate Procedure – a codebook (print or e-book) from State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE® – ensures you apply the latest version of the rules to your practice.
The state’s official Wisconsin Statutes: Just how current are they?
Take a look at the six-volume set of the official 2013-14 Wisconsin Statutes compiled by the Legislative Reference Bureau, published at the beginning of 2015. Thumb through to the Preface in the first volume, and you’ll discover a caveat: although the statutes reflect “all acts of the legislature enacted through the 2013-14 legislative session,” they’ve been updated to include only “certain orders of the [Wisconsin] Supreme Court promulgated through Aug. 1, 2014.” How can you be sure you haven’t missed a later change in the appellate rules?
PINNACLE’s Wisconsin Rules of Appellate Procedure Codebook: An essential step to stay up-to-date on the rules in 2015
For a more recent version of the rules, make sure you’ve got a copy of the 2015 edition of the Wisconsin Rules of Appellate Procedure, from the State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE’s codebook library. There, for example, you’ll find the text of a newly created rule (section 809.86): “Identification of victims and others in briefing.” Among other things, this new rule will prohibit all briefs, without good cause, from identifying a crime victim by the victim’s name. Read through the rule now, so you’ll be ready when it takes effect on July 1, 2015.
What else is new in the Rules of Appellate Procedure?
Other changes incorporated into PINNACLE’s Wisconsin Rules of Appellate Procedure codebook – which reprints Wisconsin’s appellate rules in a handy, single-volume – are new rules that the supreme court has adopted on limited scope representation. These revisions include amendments to the appellate rules on briefing and filing papers, which took effect Jan. 1, 2015.
Where can you find out more about how to apply the rules in practice?
Of course, having the most recent rules is only the first step. Attorneys must properly apply the rules. For guidance on navigating the basic steps of an appeal – from filing a notice of appeal to petitioning for supreme court review – you would be wise to consult the PINNACLE treatise Appellate Practice and Procedure in Wisconsin, written by Attorney Michael Heffernan. The book also provides several indispensable appendices, including a “Standards of Appellate Review” outline (prepared by the Honorable Richard S. Brown, current chief judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals) and 30 forms used in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (reviewed by Diane Fremgen, current clerk of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals).
Order today!
The Wisconsin Rules of Appellate Procedure is available in print and as an e-book. The cost is $29 for members.
Appellate Practice and Procedure in Wisconsinis available in both print and online (via Books UnBound®). Members pay $179 for the print book, and $149 for the Books UnBound version.
For more information, or to place an order, visit the WisBar Marketplace or call the State Bar at (800) 728-7788 or (608) 257-3838. Subscribers to the Bar’s automatic supplementation service will receive future updates at a discount off the regular price. Annual subscriptions to Books UnBound start at $149 per title (single-user price; call for full-library and law-firm pricing).
