The Assembly adjourned the 2023-24 session at the conclusion of its last scheduled floor day, February 22. The Senate held its final day of floor votes on March 12. The Wisconsin Legislature stands adjourned and is not expected to reconvene until January 2025. Throughout the 2023-24 session, the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council (WCJC) worked tirelessly to advance civil liability reforms and prevent new civil causes of action from becoming law.

This session, legislators introduced many bills proposing to create new private rights of action. WCJC successfully defeated all of them, or else successfully had the legislation amended to remove the new cause of action before passage. A notable and concerning trend for the state’s business community and civil defense and insurance attorneys is an increasing willingness among legislators of both parties to propose new civil causes of action as a way of advancing policy goals that could otherwise be accomplished by regulatory or other means.

This session, WCJC successfully advanced through both houses of the legislature SB 613, legislation to create a $1 million per-victim cap on the recovery of noneconomic damages from trucking companies and commercial drivers. Authored by Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee) and Reps. John Spiros (R-Marshfield) and Rick Gundrum (R-Slinger), the aim of the bill is to protect employers from unreasonable "nuclear verdicts" and to help stabilize insurance costs for the trucking industry.

Despite broad support for SB 613 among Wisconsin’s business community, Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed SB 613, likely due to opposition from the plaintiff’s bar.

SB 52, authored by Sen. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere) and Rep. Elijah Behnke (R-Oconto), would have created a voluntary training and registration program for commercial applicators of products for snow and ice removal. The program, to be managed by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, was intended to encourage applicators to use ice and snow removal procedures that also protect water quality, in part by reducing salt use.

For registered applicators and the businesses and individual property owners that hire them, the bill provided protection from civil liability for a hazard related to snow and ice accumulation. This liability exemption would have applied provided that the registered applicator used approved treatment methods and did not commit a reckless, wanton, or intentional act or omission.

SB 52 passed both houses of the legislature and was supported by Wisconsin business and environmental groups, but opposed by the plaintiff’s bar. Gov. Evers vetoed SB 52.

An ongoing priority for WCJC is creating reasonable consumer protections related to “lawsuit lending,” a nonrecourse advance payment whereby plaintiffs get a cash advance on a claim with repayment of the advance contingent on the outcome of the case.

Last session, we introduced similar legislation and a hearing was held in both houses but, unfortunately, we ran into headwinds on these bills as session drew to a close.

This session, despite good committee hearings in both houses and a positive Senate committee vote, the legislation failed to advance. We are reassessing our approach for the 2025-26 legislative session.

Increasingly, both Republican and Democratic legislators are introducing legislation to create new civil causes of action. Consistently, WCJC opposed the creation of new civil causes of action against private businesses:

• WCJC successfully halted Gov. Evers’ budget proposals to create several new civil causes of action.

• WCJC successfully worked to remove new civil causes of action from several Republican-authored bills.

• WCJC flagged for legislators a number of other bills, none of which made it out of committee, which also would have created new civil causes of action.

See this page for a full list of the bills that WCJC amended or opposed this session.

At WCJC’s request, Rep. Gundrum (R-Slinger) introduced comprehensive public nuisance reform legislation. AB 1157 was introduced March 22, 2024, and referred to the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. The bill did not advance this session.

Late in the 2023-24 legislative session, several Democratic lawmakers introduced two bills to significantly increase potential damages from medical malpractice claims:

• AB 871 adds adult children to the list of relatives who are entitled to sue for injury or death resulting from medical malpractice and provides that both minor and certain adult children have the right to recover for loss of society and companionship if the parent is injured or dies as the result of medical malpractice.

• AB 872 raises the limit on noneconomic damages for medical malpractice claims from $750,000 to $3 million for each occurrence of medical malpractice.

WCJC is opposed to these bills, which would increase the cost of medical malpractice insurance in Wisconsin, thereby raising healthcare costs for employers and consumers. The bills did not receive a public hearing or further committee action prior to adjournment and will not advance this year.

After both houses held their final days of floor votes, a handful of Democratic legislators introduced legislation (SB 1092) to restore the ability of private parties to file a qui tam action alleging Medical Assistance fraud. This bill is very similar to a proposal included in Gov. Evers’ past state budget proposals. WCJC worked to eliminate this provision from state law as part of the 2015 state budget act.