State courts' affirmance rates hold steady in 2018.
Byline: Erika Strebel, erika.strebel@wislawjournal.com
In 2018, there was little change from 2017 in the rate at which the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed trial-court judges.
That was just one of the findings of a review the Wisconsin Law Journal conducted of Supreme Court and appellate decisions handed down from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018. (Only full Court of Appeals decisions posted on the Wisconsin Court System's website were counted.)
In 2018, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals handed down decisions in more than 700 cases and affirmed circuit court judges 85 percent of the time. The high court, for its part, handed down more than 60 decisions, affirming state trial judges 69 percent of the time.
The affirmance rates were down by 1 percentage point from what they were in 2017, when the affirmance rate was 70 percent before the high court and 86 percent before the state appeals court.
Court of Appeals Deputy Chief Judge Lisa Stark said that in all four of the state's appellate-court districts, the number of filings and dispositions has remained the same as in previous years.
Litigants also continued filing motions in large numbers.
In District 1, in Milwaukee County, trial court judges were affirmed about 89 percent of the time in 2018, down from 90 percent in 2017.
Stark said her fellow District 1 appeals-court judges saw an increase in parental-rights cases that were terminated by a single judge, a trend they were at a loss to explain.
Meanwhile, trial judges in counties in District 2, which includes Waukesha County, were affirmed about 83 percent of the time, down from 86 percent in 2017.
In District 3, which includes Eau Claire County, circuit-court judges were affirmed 84 percent of the time, up from 82 percent in 2017. Appellate judges in that district saw more cases involving land-use questions dealing with zoning, restrictive covenants and challenges of state Department of Natural Resources decisions involving water use, Stark said.
In District 4, which includes Dane County, the court of appeals affirmed trial court judges 81 percent of the time, down from 85 percent in 2017.
Appeals judges in this district saw an increase in cases involving implied consent and unconscious drivers, Stark said. She noted that some of the pending cases of those sorts were put on hold to give the Wisconsin Supreme Court time to decide if it will take the case of State v. Hawley. The appeals court certified that case to the justices in November, asking it to definitively weigh in on whether drawing blood from unconscious drivers violates the 4th Amendment.
Stark also noted that the U.S. Supreme Court granted certification on Jan. 11 to a Wisconsin case, State v. Mitchell, involving blood draws from unconscious drivers. The dispute in that case centers on whether a statute authorizing a blood draw from an unconscious motorist provides an exception to the 4th Amendment's warrant requirement.
How trial court judges fared at the Wisconsin Supreme Court
The Wisconsin Law Journal has compiled a comprehensive review of every circuit-court decision the Wisconsin Supreme Court took up in 2018. Below is a complete listing showing both the judges who initially ruled on the cases that went before the justices and the outcomes before the high court.
Data gathered by Erika Strebel
Judge
County
Affirmed
Reversed
% Affirmed
Albert, John
Dane
1
0%
Anderson, John
Bayfield
1
0%
Anderson, Peter
Dane
1
0%
Bauer, Steven
Dodge
1
100%
Bendix, Gary
Manitowoc
1
0%
Berz, Ellen
Dane
1
100%
Bjerke, Todd
La Crosse
1
100%
Bohren, Michael
Waukesha
1
0%
Borowski, David
Milwaukee
1
100%
Bourke, Terence
Sheboygan
1
100%
Brash, William
Milwaukee
1
100%
Brostrom, Ellen
Milwaukee
1
0%
Colas, Juan
Dane
1
0%
Conen, Jeffrey
Milwaukee
1
1
50%
Dallet, Rebecca
Milwaukee
1
100%
Dee, Christopher
Milwaukee
1
100%
DiMotto, John
Milwaukee
2
0%
Donald, Joseph
Milwaukee
1
100%
Dorow, Jennifer
Waukesha
1
100%
Dreyfus, Lee
Waukesha
1
100%
Dugan, Timothy
Milwaukee
1
1
50%
Eagon, Thomas
Wood
1
100%
Ehlers, D.T.
Door
1
100%
Ehlke, Stephen
Dane
1
100%
Fox, Jerome
Manitowoc
1
100%
Gonring, Andrew
Washington
1
100%
Grimm, Peter
Fond du Lac
1
100%
Hammer, Marc
Brown
1
100%
Hansher, David
Milwaukee
1
0%
Haughney, Patrick
Waukesha
1
100%
Hue, William
Jefferson
1
100%
Isaacson, James
Chippewa
1
100%
Johnston, William
Lafayette
2
100%
Jorgensen, John
Winnebago
1
0%
Kelley, Kendall
Brown
1
100%
Koschnick, Randy
Jefferson
1
100%
Koss, Phillip
Walworth
1
0%
Kremers, Jeffrey
Milwaukee
1
0%
Lanford, Rhonda
Dane
1
100%
Lenz, Paul
Eau Claire
2
100%
Madden, Patrick
Price
1
0%
Malloy, Paul
Ozaukee
2
100%
Marik, Wayne
Racine
1
100%
Martens, Todd
Washington
1
1
50%
McAdams, Thomas
Milwaukee
1
100%
Moroney, Dennis
Milwaukee
1
100%
Muehlbauer, James
Washington
1
100%
Mueller, Emily
Racine
1
100%
Needham, Scott
St. Croix
1
100%
Niess, Richard
Dane
1
100%
Noonan, Daniel
Milwaukee
1
100%
Paulson, David
Racine
1
100%
Protasiewicz, Janet
Milwaukee
1
100%
Rice, David
Monroe
1
0%
Rosborough, Michael
Monroe
1
1
50%
Sankovitz, Richard
Milwaukee
1
100%
Schumacher, Michael
Eau Claire
1
0%
Seifert, Karen
Winnebago
1
100%
Smith, Amy
Dane
1
100%
Thimm, Kelly
Douglas
1
0%
Torhorst, Allan
Racine
1
100%
Williams, Sandy
Ozaukee
1
100%
Yackel, John
Sawyer
1
0%
49
22
69%
[divider]
How trial court judges fared at the Wisconsin Court of Appeals
In compiling this data, we counted only full decisions that were both handed down by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and that were listed on the Wisconsin Court System website. Summary decisions were excluded.
Also important to note is that judges could be listed here as presiding judges who were reversed, even though all they really did was enter an order that was consistent with case law established by another judge.
Similarly, a judge's decision could be reversed by the Court of Appeals but ultimately affirmed by the state Supreme Court. In a case of this sort, the previous reversal would still count as a reversal by the Court of Appeals.
It's also worth pointing out that as the law changes, so can a judge's holding. When a holding was issued, it could be entirely consistent with binding precedent and yet later be reversed because a subsequent decision had changed the law.
Data gathered by Erika Strebel
Judge
County
Affirmed
Reversed
% Affirmed
Anderson, Jeffery
Polk
3
0
100%
Anderson, John
Bayfield/Sawyer
1
0
100%
Anderson, Peter
Dane
2
3
40%
Aprahamian, Michael
Waukesha
4
1
80%
Atkinson, William
Brown
3
0
100%
Babler, James
Polk
2
1
67%
Bailey-Rihn, Valerie
Dane
2
0
100%
Bates, Alan
Rock
1
0
100%
Bauer, Steven
Dodge
3
0
100%
Beer, James
Green
3
0
100%
Bendix, Gary
Manitowoc
2
0
100%
Berz, Ellen
Dane
6
4
60%
Biskupic, Vincent
Outagamie
2
0
100%
Bissett, Daniel
Winnebago
6
0
100%
Bitney, Michael
Barron
1
1
50%
Bjerke, Todd
La Crosse
1
0%
Boles, Joseph
Pierce/Buffalo
3
0
100%
Borowski, David
Milwaukee
9
3
75%
Bourke, Terence
Sheboygan
2
0
100%
Boyle, Timothy
Racine
2
0
100%
Brash, William
Milwaukee
2
0
100%
Brazeau, Nicholas
Clark/Wood
0
1
0%
Brostrom, Ellen
Milwaukee
12
0
100%
Bult, Bernard
Marquette
2
0
100%
Cameron, Roderick
Chippewa
1
0
100%
Carlson, James
Walworth
1
0
100%
Carter, Lloyd
Waukesha
2
0
100%
Cimpl, Dennis
Milwaukee
12
1
92%
Clussman, Vicki
Waupaca/Outagamie
2
1
67%
Colas, Juan
Dane
3
0
100%
Colon, Pedro
Milwaukee
1
0
100%
Conen, Jeffrey
Milwaukee
6
1
86%
Conley, Jay
Oconto
2
1
67%
Counsell, Jon
Clark
3
0
100%
Cray, Steven
Chippewa
2
1
67%
Curran, Paul
Adams/Juneau
5
0
100%
Daley, James
Rock
2
0
100%
Dallet, Rebecca
Milwaukee
6
1
86%
Davis, Cynthia
Milwaukee
2
0
100%
Davis, Mac
Jefferson
1
0
100%
Day, Craig
Grant
2
1
67%
Dee, Christopher
Milwaukee
3
0
100%
Des Jardins, John
Outagamie
4
0
100%
DeVries, Martin
Dodge
1
0
100%
Diltz, Peter
Door
1
0
100%
DiMotto, Jean
Milwaukee
1
0
100%
DiMotto, John
Milwaukee
0
2
0%
Domina, William
Waukesha
0
1
0%
Donald, Joseph
Milwaukee
13
1
93%
Doyle, Gloria
Jackson
0
1
0%
Drettwan, Kristine
Walworth
2
0
100%
Dreyfus, Lee
Waukesha
4
0
100%
Dugan, Hannah
Milwaukee
3
1
75%
Dugan, Timothy
Milwaukee
5
1
83%
Duket, Tim
Marinette
1
0
100%
Dutcher, Guy
Waushara
2
0
100%
Duvall, James
Pepin/Pierce
3
0
100%
Dwyer, Michael
Milwaukee
1
0
100%
Eagon, Thomas
Portage
1
0
100%
Eaton, Robert
Ashland
1
0
100%
Ehlers, D. Todd
Door/Brown
2
0
100%
Ehlke, Stephen
Dane
5
1
83%
English, Dale
Fond du Lac
1
0
100%
Falstad, Jill
Marathon
2
0
100%
Feiss, David
Milwaukee
2
1
67%
Feltes, Charles
Trempealeau
2
0
100%
Fiorenza, Clare
Milwaukee
4
2
67%
Fitzpatrick, Michael
Rock
2
0
100%
Flanagan, Mel
Milwaukee
2
0
100%
Flancher, Faye
Racine
2
0
100%
Flugaur, Thomas
Portage/Clark
6
1
86%
Foley, Christopher
Milwaukee
17
0
100%
Forbeck, Kenneth
Rock
1
0
100%
Foster, Kathryn
Waukesha
7
2
78%
Fox, Jerome
Manitowoc
2
0
100%
Froehlich, Jeffrey
Calumet
2
1
67%
Gabler, William
Eau Claire/Chippewa
5
2
71%
Gage, Michael
Outagamie
2
0
100%
Gasiorkiewicz, Eugene
Racine
3
1
75%
Genovese, Julie
Dane
2
0
100%
Gibbs, Steven
Chippewa
0
1
0%
Gill, Gregory
Outagamie
2
0
100%
Glonek, George
Douglas
1
1
50%
Gonring, Andrew
Washington
2
0
100%
Goodman, Mark
Jackson
2
0
100%
Grady, Lindsey Canonie
Milwauk...
To continue reading
Request your trialCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.