Governor Doyle recently signed 2009 Wisconsin Act 34 into law, which requires that preparation time be treated as a mandatory subject of bargaining. The new law reverses a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that held that a guaranteed amount of preparation time was a permissive subject of bargaining. Dodgeland Education Association v. WERC, 250...
When Governor Doyle signed the 2009-2011 biennial budget on June 29, 2009, several basic legal protections previously available only to married couples were made available to same-sex couples. Among these legal protections is the right to exercise leave under Wisconsin’s Family and Medical Leave Act (“WFMLA”) in order to care for a domestic...
By D&K's School and Higher Education Law Team The United States Supreme Court recently determined that a school district’s strip search of a thirteen year old pupil was unconstitutional, but in the process, expressed strong support for school district officials’ right to conduct searches when they have a reasonable suspicion that contraband...
Although nearly a year passed between a teacher’s knowledge of her inaccurate salary and the filing of her grievance, the Wisconsin Supreme Court deferred to an arbitrator’s finding that her grievance was timely filed. In Baldwin-Woodville Area School District v. West Central Education Association – Baldwin-Woodville Unit, 2009 WI 51, the...
Earlier this year the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was enacted to address the current economic challenges facing our country. Contained in the ARRA are new whistleblower protections for employees of “non-federal employers” receiving stimulus funds, including public school districts and their contractors and...
By Mary S. Gerbig On June 22, 2009 the U. S. Supreme Court confirmed that parents can seek reimbursement for the cost of private tuition under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) even if their children have not previously received special education services through a public school. Forest Grove Sch. Dist. vs. T. A., 109 LRP...
Overview Governor Doyle signed the 2009-11 state budget (2009 Wis. Act 28) into law on June 29, 2009, which included several changes to Wisconsin’s Collective Bargaining Law for school districts. Most significantly, the bill repealed the 16-year old Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) Law and reinstated final-offer, binding arbitration as the way to...
Entrepreneurs know that starting a new business or expanding an ongoing business into new areas is the stuff that dreams are made of. To keep those dreams alive, serious thought has to be given to protecting the business in all of the usual ways – a sales network is firmly in place, the lease is iron-clad, the business liability insurance is...
One of its most obvious, but often overlooked, assets that a business has is the very name that the business uses to hold itself out to the public. That name, including the names of various products and services it may market, are valuable assets of that business and need to be treated as such. Most business owners do not realize it, but the...
The general rule on this subject is that an employee who invents something as part of his or her job duties probably has a legal duty to assign his or her entire interest in the invention and any patent that may be obtained on that invention to his or her employer. If the employee invents something apart from his or her normal job duties, then...
