By: Davis|Kuelthau's Labor and Employment Team On April 19, 2019, the IRS released new procedures for correcting qualified retirement plan errors under its Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS). In particular, Revenue Procedure 2019-19 expanded the types of mistakes that can be corrected by a plan sponsor on its own, thereby...

Immoral and Scandalous Trademarks Are Now Allowed According to Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Decision
By: Erin E. Kaprelian On June 24, 2019, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Iancu v. Brunetti, addressing whether, in light of its previous holding in Matal v. Tam, the Lanham (Trademark) Act’s prohibition on registration of “immoral” and “scandalous” trademarks represents a violation of the First Amendment. Six justices joined the...

Seventh Circuit Finds Obesity Alone is Not a Disability Under the ADA
By: James M. Kalny On June 12, 2019, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in the case of Richardson v. Chicago Transit Authority holding among other things, that obesity is not an impairment under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) absent the showing of an underlying physiological cause. As 32% of adults in Wisconsin are...

What Do You Do When Your Employee Doesn’t Want to Count Leave Against FMLA Entitlement?
By: Laurie E. Meyer and Abby S. Busler A couple common scenarios: Your longtime employee, Karen, tells you that she wants to take leave to care for her sick husband—leave that would certainly constitute “qualifying leave” under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) as you are a “covered” employer under the FMLA and Karen is eligible for the...

Capitalizing on Opportunity Zones
By: Michael Van Someren One of the most exciting new topics in real estate is the creation of opportunity zones as part of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. Recently, the IRS issued additional guidance on the use of opportunity zones in the form of proposed regulations. Based on the proposed regulations, the excitement surrounding opportunity...

Clarified Individual Member Rights and Duties in Limited Liability Companies
By: Tiffany E. Woelfel and Sherry D. Coley In a highly-anticipated opinion, released in April 2019, the Wisconsin Supreme Court clarified the liability of individual members of Limited Liability Companies (“LLCs”) to the LLC and the other members. In the case of Marx v. Morris, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that individual members of an LLC...
Ryan Wiesner Published in DRI on Standard of One Opinions in Medical Negligence Litigation
Ryan Wiesner of Davis|Kuelthau’s Litigation team published an article, Identifying and Combatting Standard of One Expert Opinions in Medical Negligence Litigation, in DRI’s April 2019 For the Defense Medical Liability and Health Care Law Committee’s Newsletter. His article explores the Standard of One issue in medical negligence cases, discusses...

Local Government Environmental Cost Recovery Tools
By: Ted A. Warpinski & Todd Farris Many local governmental units (“LGUs”) may still be dealing with old municipal dumps and most have abandoned contaminated properties ripe for development if sources of funds to clean them up can be identified. It is time to look again at the tools available to recover investigative and remediation costs...

Wisconsin’s Pleading Standard: Sea Change or “Same Old/Same Old?”
By: Kathy L. Nusslock In Cattau v. National Insurance Services of Wisconsin, Inc.,[1]decided on April 30, 2019, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously declared the pleading standard articulated in 1983 in Strid v. Converse[2] was unchanged by its 2014 decision in Data Key Partners v. Permira Advisers, LLC.[3] This declaration may surprise many...

City of Milwaukee Property Owners Face May 20th Deadline for Filing of Objections to 2019 Property Tax Notice of Assessment
By: Christopher J. Jaekels The City of Milwaukee recently sent its 2019 "Notice of Assessed Value – Real Property" to City of Milwaukee property owners. In most cases, this Notice of Assessment notifies the property owner of an increase in assessed value and potentially an increase in property taxes. Depending on the size of the increase, the...