Wisconsin State Law Library

Two exciting new databases have been purchased by the State Law Library, available through HeinOnline.

NCCUSL - National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

Before the Wisconsin State Legislature votes on a "uniform law," the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has spent at least two years discussing and refining language that is eventually offered to the states for consideration. The documents produced in this process - such as issue memos, drafts and final rules are all part of the online NCCUSL archive on HeinOnline. This valuable database includes access to the all acts, including new proposals, such as the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Dec. 2015) and long-standing laws, such as the Uniform Securities Act (1949).

National Survey of State Laws

Attorneys and researchers often need to compare laws across many states. The National Survey of State Laws reviews the most popular legal topics and provides statutory references and brief explanation of the law in each state. Topics include lemon law, minimum wage, adverse possession, divorce, and gun control to name a few. Access on HeinOnline includes prior editions, back to 1993.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court passed a rule requiring eFiling for civil, family, small claims, and paternity cases. This rule (Wis. Stat. 801.18) will likely take effect July 1, 2016 and roll out in pilot counties that currently offer voluntary eFiling. With this rule eFiling will be required for attorneys and high-volume filing agents. Those who are not represented by an attorney and low-volume filing agents may use the system on a voluntary basis. There will be a fee of $20 per case, but this can be waived for indigent parties and governmental units. 

Our latest free CLE program covers current and proposed laws and regulations about drones. Get a comprehensive overview of state and federal drone laws and regulations for hobbyists, commercial drone operators, and government entities such as police and fire departments.

This lecture-style class will take place in the Rare Book Room at the Wisconsin State Law Library on Thursday, March 10 from noon to 1 p.m.

Sign up for the class online or mail in your registration. Registration is limited to 25 attendees.

Some of our users on certain devices or browsers may experience problems logging in to our databases from home. If you can not log in to our databases from your home or work computer, you may be successful if you try a different browser. We are investigating sporadic problems with the log in process and will post to this blog when those problems are resolved.

Please ask a librarian for help accessing our databases or their content. Watch this blog for further updates.

Wisconsin's spring primary election is just days away on Tuesday, February 16th. This includes a statewide primary for Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and local primaries for some county Circuit Court Judges.

President Obama's FY 2017 budget was released today. It can be read online at govinfo.gov, a new website for Federal publications.

"The Budget consists of a collection of documents that contains the budget message of the President, information about the President's budget proposals for a given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications that have been issued throughout the fiscal year. Other related and supporting budget publications are included; these may vary from year to year."

Read the budget on your mobile device by downloading the mobile app. The mobile app provides access to the text and images in the budget and links to govinfo.gov for additional information.