Posted on May 10,2022 in Criminal Defense

With warmer weather slowly returning to Wisconsin, more bicyclists and pedestrians will be out on local roads. Some drivers may not know the rights and responsibilities that bicyclists have as they are sharing the road with motor vehicles or the proper behavior for drivers around bicycles. Bicycles are considered vehicles and belong on the road. Here are some tips for safe driving when bikes are present and to avoid risking severe accidents and traffic violations.  

Wisconsin Rules of the Road for Bicycles and Motor Vehicles

• Bicyclists should generally ride on the right side of the road or traffic lane, except when passing slower traffic, going around objects such as parked cars or other hazards, preparing to make a left-hand turn, or when the road is too narrow to move farther to the right.

• Motor vehicles passing a bicyclist must maintain at least three feet of space between them and the bicycle. You are permitted to cross a double yellow line in order to keep this distance while passing a bike.  

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 Posted on April 28,2022 in Criminal Defense

If you have been charged with any type of sex offense, your situation is incredibly serious. Having a sex offense on your record will impact almost every area of your life. Being on the sex offender registry closes a lot of doors. Opportunities that otherwise would have been available to you can disappear. Your reputation can be destroyed very quickly. You are also likely facing prison time - judges typically do not go easy on those being sentenced for sex crimes. Even after any judicial consequences are over with, being a sex offender can permanently alter the course of your life. The best thing you can do for yourself right now is to find an experienced criminal defense attorney. There are steps a lawyer can take to help you.

How Can Becoming a Sex Offender Affect My Life?

There are a lot of legal requirements that sex offenders have to abide by. There are also a lot of collateral consequences from a social perspective. Some ways that becoming a sex offender may affect you include:

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 Posted on April 21,2022 in Criminal Defense

When operating a car or any motor vehicle, you are in control of what can be a very dangerous object. While basic traffic violations are unlikely to harm others, driving recklessly can have deadly consequences for yourself and other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists on the road. If you strike and kill another person with a vehicle in Wisconsin, you can be charged with vehicular homicide.

Types of Vehicular Homicide and Penalties in Wisconsin

There are two different types of vehicular homicide charges in Wisconsin:

• Homicide by Negligent Operation – A driver is charged with Homicide by Negligent Operation when they cause the death of an individual by their criminally negligent operation or handling of a vehicle. Criminal negligence means that a person should know that their action creates a substantial and unreasonable risk of death or great bodily harm to another individual. Homicide by Negligent Operation is a class G felony and can carry a penalty if convicted of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum of $25,000 in fines.

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 Posted on April 15,2022 in DUI/OWI

Wisconsin has what are called implied consent laws. By getting a driver’s license in our state, you implicitly agree to cooperate with chemical testing following a DUI test. This rule does not apply to field sobriety testing, however. Drivers are free to refuse to perform field sobriety testing, however, doing so may not protect you from getting arrested for DUI anyway. It is important to understand how refusing field sobriety testing and refusing chemical testing could impact your case and your driver’s license. If you were arrested on suspicion of DUI, it is important to find an experienced attorney who handles this type of case.

What Happens if I Refuse to Perform Field Sobriety Tests?

You should know that you are not legally obligated to perform field sobriety tests. In some cases, refusing field sobriety testing can actually help your case. Field sobriety tests are essentially an effort by police to gather evidence against you. By performing the tests, you could inadvertently incriminate yourself should you appear intoxicated during them.

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 Posted on April 05,2022 in Criminal Defense

We all know that driving while intoxicated is illegal. However, DUI is not the only traffic offense for which you could be arrested or even sentenced to additional jail time. Wisconsin takes the rules of the road fairly seriously. Even getting too many regular traffic tickets can ultimately lead to criminal charges or a revoked license. If your traffic stop led to more than just a ticket you can pay and forget about, you should strongly consider working with an attorney. These more serious traffic offenses can leave you with a criminal record that will follow you for the rest of your life or even result in jail time.

Which Traffic Offenses Are Treated as Crimes?

Mild speeding or failing to stop completely at a stop sign is likely to get you ticketed and released. The ticket becomes part of your driving record, but you are unlikely to end up in jail or get stuck with a criminal record - unless you keep doing it repeatedly. However, these traffic offenses are considered criminal offenses:

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 Posted on March 29,2022 in Criminal Defense

Everyone knows that driving drunk is illegal. However, there is some confusion about the legality of driving with alcoholic beverages in the car. Some of Wisconsin’s laws regarding open containers in vehicles are not so easy to interpret. Quite a few people end up getting a citation for an open container violation without even realizing that they were doing something wrong. While an open container citation is much less serious than an OWI, it can still be problematic to have on your record. A traffic attorney may be able to help if you have received this citation. In some cases, it may be better to contest the citation with a lawyer’s help than to simply pay the fine and move on.

What Does “Open Container” Mean?

The definition of an open container in Wisconsin is broader than you may realize. A container of alcohol is open if the seal is broken or the contents have been partially removed. Therefore, you cannot re-cork a wine bottle or replace the cap on a bottle of liquor and consider it closed. Alcohol in a flask is an open container as well.

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 Posted on March 24,2022 in Personal Injury

Getting into a car accident can at the least, majorly disrupt your day. You are not going to get where you were going anytime soon, even if you had an important meeting or appointment. At the worst, a car accident can disrupt your entire life if you face criminal charges as a result. It might be tempting to get out of there rather than stick around and identify yourself when you have caused an accident, but doing so will only make things worse. Your safest bet is to comply with Wisconsin law regarding what you can and cannot do immediately after a car accident. Then, you need to call a lawyer as soon as possible.

If I Have Caused a Car Accident, What Do I Need to Do Next?

Right after an accident, you might be experiencing a flood of emotions, ranging from panic to guilt, especially if someone got hurt. It is important to remain calm and comply with the legal steps you are required to take. After a car accident, Wisconsin law requires you to:

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 Posted on March 13,2022 in Criminal Defense

Simply put, statutory rape is any sexual activity between an adult 18 years old or older and a minor who is younger than 19 years old. The idea behind this sex offense is that minors are not capable of consenting to sexual activity, so adults should avoid engaging in it with them even if the minor does in fact give consent. That means that in order to get a conviction, the prosecution need not prove any type of force or coercion. Under Wisconsin state law, several distinct crimes fall under the umbrella of statutory rape. A conviction could leave you on the sex offenders’ list, so if you are facing any of these charges, it is very important that you do not wait to find an attorney.

What Offenses Are Considered Types of Statutory Rape?

In Wisconsin, statutory rape is the name given to several different offenses based on the respective ages of the offender and the minor involved. It might be called “Sexual Assault of a Child” or “Sexual Assault of a Minor,” even if there was no real assault involved and the minor agreed to the act. Categories of statutory rape in Wisconsin include:

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 Posted on March 08,2022 in Criminal Defense

Yellow school buses were absent from Wisconsin’s roads for quite some time during the height of the pandemic. While schools were largely closed and relying on distance learning, drivers did not need to worry about sharing the road with these important vehicles. Now that schools have been reopened and school buses are back on the road, it may be a good time to review the state laws that apply when you encounter one. These laws are designed to keep both child passengers and everyone else on the road safe. Aside from being dangerous, violating a law about school bus safety could lead to serious fines or even a loss of license. If you have been issued a ticket after violating a school bus law, it is important to take it seriously - the state certainly does.

What Laws Do I Need to Follow When I See a School Bus on the Road?

School bus laws may feel very restrictive, but keep in mind that these laws are in place to protect children. Unlike adults, children cannot be expected to exercise great judgment when it comes to road safety. Younger kids can be quite unpredictable, and hard to spot around another vehicle. Wisconsin state laws other drivers must follow when they see a school bus include:

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 Posted on February 28,2022 in Criminal Defense

Healthcare workers have had a particularly difficult time these last two years or so. As if the constant threat of COVID exposure were not enough, assaults against healthcare workers have been on the rise. Wait times in the ER have been extremely long, with some patients waiting upwards of 12 hours to be seen. Many have been unable to visit their loved ones who were hospitalized with the virus. Disinformation about “alternative” treatments has led to disputes between patients, families, and care teams. On far too many occasions, this has led to violence in hospitals and doctors' offices. A new bill, which recently passed the state assembly, would make any violence against a healthcare worker a felony criminal offense.

Was Attacking a Healthcare Worker Not Already a Felony?

A preexisting law made it a felony to batter a nurse or emergency care worker, such as Emergency Room doctors and paramedics. Nurses and emergency health care staff have typically been the most common targets of violence in health care settings. Emotions can run very high in emergency settings, sometimes even escalating to violence. In an effort to keep these critical workers safe in their workplaces, even minor violence against them can be treated as a felony battery.

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