Wisconsin Civil Justice Council Will Work for their Removal

On Tuesday, February 16, Governor Tony Evers gave his second biennial budget address and released his 2021-23 executive budget. All told, the governor proposes an operating budget of $45.4 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2021-22 and $45.6 billion in FY 2022-23. An overview the provisions in the governor’s budget, separated by issue area, can be found here. The complete budget, budget in brief, and other executive budget documents are available here.

On the civil justice front, the governor’s budget includes the following proposals of concern to the WCJC and its members:

• Creates a new civil cause of action allowing a person to bring an action alleging that an employer has violated employment discrimination, unfair honesty testing, or unfair genetic testing laws (currently, a person may file a complaint with DWD). Such actions could not be filed against an employer that employs fewer than 15 individuals. Back pay, attorney fees, and compensatory & punitive damages could be awarded.
• Creates a new civil cause of action allowing any person to bring an action against a broadband service provider alleging the provider has denied access to broadband service to any group of potential residential customers because of the race or income of the residents in the area in which the group resides. Costs and attorney fees could be awarded. DATCP could also enforce this provision.
• Creates a new civil cause of action against a person who unnecessarily summons a law enforcement officer and causes the officer to arrive at a location to contact another person. A ground for such a cause of action could be the person felt “harassed, humiliated, or embarrassed.” Damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, and attorney fees could be awarded.
• Restores the ability of private parties to bring a qui tam action against a person for making a false claim with the state, such as Medicaid. The private party bringing the claim on behalf of the state could be awarded up to 30 percent of the amount recovered, along with attorney fees. The Wisconsin Civil Justice Council successfully worked in the 2015 legislative session to remove a similar provision under prior law.

The WCJC is working to ensure that these harmful, non-fiscal policy provisions creating new private causes of action and recreating qui tam actions for false claims are removed from the budget by the Legislature. We expect the budget process to take several months; by June, the full budget should be available for debate and passage by the Legislature.