Month: August 2011

State Court Challenges to Legislatively Enacted Tort Reforms

The Summer 2011 edition of the Federalist Society’s State Court Docket Watch features an article co-authored by Andrew Cook, Legislative Director of the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council and a lobbyist and attorney with the Hamilton Consulting Group, and Great Lakes Legal Foundation staff attorney Emily Kelchen.

State Court Challenges to Legislatively Enacted Tort Reforms provides a summary of recent state supreme court cases in which opponents of civil liability reform have challenged reform laws, mostly on constitutional grounds. The article also provides a summary of the recent reforms in Wisconsin law and an analysis of past Wisconsin reforms that were found unconstitutional.

Fairly Allotting Liability Among Defendants

Andrew Cook, Legislative Director of the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council and a lobbyist and attorney with the Hamilton Consulting Group, was asked to present his paper on Fairly Allotting Liability Among Defendants at the August 2, 2011 meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in New Orleans.

The paper discusses the different variations of joint and several liability using Wisconsin as an example of how the law has changed over time.