Wisconsin Bar Brawl

When Wisconsin voters go to the polls this April Fool's day, the state Supreme Court may realize the joke's on them. After four years of judicial activism, one of the court's most liberal members, Justice Louis Butler, is up for re-election -- and voters get to send a message about what they expect from their judges.

Due to a job transfer, I recently moved to WI from GA. The first thing I realized was a 3% pay cut due to state income taxes. Also the Governor here is determined to make Wisconsin the global warming experiment for the entire Mid West. The draconian measures he is introducing are ridiculous. I will give them a big thumbs up for education. My three children are receiving a far superior education here than Georgia. This leads to another problem though, young people are leaving the state when they get out of college. Guess where they are going? to the south and west. The liberal politicians just do not get it.

This is why there are insurance companies who are considering stopping doing business in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has a good chance of ending up like Louisiana: It will become uninsurable.

Wisconsin has a draconian civil law that allows a plaintiff in a civil case to sue the defendant’s insurance company directly; the fact that the insurance policy does not cover a particular claim is irrelevant, and the law commands the insurance company to defend the defendant, plus demands that the insurance company also SUE the defendant so that the court can determine insurance coverage. This is nothing but a shakedown. Inevitably, the judge will pull the insurance company into court and tell it that it (the insurance company) is going to incur lots of costs and expenses defending the original lawsuit against the defendant, plus the costs and expenses of bringing the subsequent lawsuit against the defendant (as Wisconsin law commands), so it (the insurance company) should settle the original case so the plaintiff and his or her attorney can get money (some of which will in all probability end up in the judge’s campaign coffers). It is truly an insidious arrangement.

I am beginning to believe that insurance companies should stop writing liability insurance in the United States. The result of that, of course, would be that 75% of America’s lawyers would be out of jobs and would be collecting aluminum cans for a living. Come to think of it, THAT is real tort reform!

“Justice Butler picked this election fight when he and four colleagues decided, by judicial fiat, to make Wisconsin a national mecca for the trial bar.”

He certainly did. I think Judge Gableman has a good chance of winning. Rural Wisconsin LOVES him; no matter what the Moonbats in Madistan have to say.

The key will be turning out the vote. I’ll be there!

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