In a published opinion, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals confirmed that landlords who fail to provide timely statements explaining the basis for withholding funds from a residential tenant’s security deposit may be subject to criminal prosecution and potential jail time. In State of Wisconsin v. Lasecki, 2020 WI App 36, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals […]
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The CARES Act directs $349 billion towards job retention and business operating expenses by allowing small businesses to obtain forgivable loans of up to $10 million to be used for payroll, rent, […]
Before extending commercial loans, lenders will regularly require an owner or principal of a borrowing entity to personally guaranty payment of the entity’s loan obligations. It is well-settled under Wisconsin law that a personal guaranty contract is separate and distinct from the borrower’s loan contract with its lender. For this reason, lenders are entitled to […]
Most attorneys during their career have the opportunity or obligation to effectuate service of process of a legal document pursuant to a rule or statute. It can be in any area of the law. My practice area of creditors’ rights litigation requires me to serve process of a lawsuit under a statute that, at first glance, […]
In a reversal of a decision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in In re Pajian rejected a common bankruptcy court practice of not requiring secured creditors to file proofs of claim in order to receive distributions toward pre-petition secured arrearages as […]
Wisconsin recently enacted Act 376 modifying certain aspects of mortgage foreclosure proceedings, most notably a reduction to the period of time that owner-occupied, non-commercial property may be redeemed and the process of declaring a property abandoned. Under current law, a judgment of foreclosure must specify a length of time, called a redemption period, during which […]
On February 17, 2015, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in The Bank of New York Mellon v. Carson, 2015 WI 15, decided that, under Section 846.102 of the Wisconsin Statutes, banks and others who file mortgage foreclosure cases may be legally compelled to hold judicial sales of abandoned properties within a reasonable time after the borrower’s redemption […]
In an opinion dated January 13, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed a decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, unanimously holding that borrowers may exercise their three-year right of rescission under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) simply by providing written notice to their lender. The Court in Jesinoski v. […]
A recent Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision, Malzewski v. Rapkin, 2006 WI App 183, demonstrates the importance of obtaining a professional inspection prior to closing on a residential home transaction. Failure to do so may, under certain circumstances, prohibit a buyer from asserting otherwise available remedies against a home seller if a defect is discovered […]
