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Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Access (WSCCA) allows attorneys,
court staff and the general public to access cases filed with the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.
Generally, this site includes appeals that were considered 'Open' from the end of 1993 forward.
A redesign of WSCCA was implemented in April 2005. Because the redesign was extensive,
some of the data may not display accurately. Please direct any questions regarding the data
to the Office of the Clerk of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Wisconsin Court of Appeals.
Because of statutory requirements, some case information is not available
using WSCCA
GENERAL INFORMATION
WSCCA allows users to search for cases in both the Wisconsin Supreme Court and
Wisconsin Court of Appeals. While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information provided
through WSCCA is accurate, there are no warranties ensuring accuracy. To verify information obtained
from this site, or for additional assistance regarding the appellate court information on WSCCA, please
contact the Office of the Clerk of Supreme Court
and Court of Appeals; (608) 266-1880
Search results from WSCCA are not intended to provide statistical data.
Official appellate court statistics are available on the
Wisconsin Court System website
Information on WSCCA is updated hourly unless scheduled maintenance is being performed or WSCCA is
experiencing technical problems.
Motions that are filed with the Court of Appeals before the initiation of an appeal
or other proceedings, e.g., a motion for extension of time to file a notice of appeal in a criminal matter,
are not given an 'AP' case number, but rather are given an 'XX' number. E.g., 2005XX000153. XX-motions
also include filings that do not fall into a regular case category. The year appearing with an XX-motion
represents the calendar year in which the first pre-appeal motion was filed. A pre-appeal motion will
have a status of OP if there is a pending motion, and CL if there is no pending motion.
To use WSCCA, you must enter data into one of the selection windows and select
the [Search] button. Any results display in a list. To view the details of a retrieved case, select
the link. For example, on a Simple Case search, you will retrieve a list of cases. To view a case,
select the Case Number link. If only one appeal matches the search criteria, that appeal will be displayed.
If your search results in multiple cases, you can move through the results by selecting the Next or Previous
link. To return to the list, select the Return to List link.
The Summary for any case can be printed by selecting the Printable Version link.
The case history for an appeal also displays in PDF format. To view the PDF version of the case history,
select the PDF Version link.
The Summary for each appeal displays basic information about the appeal: Short Caption,
Status, Maintenance, Class, Court, Panel, Disposition, and County.
The Status of an appeal indicates whether the matter is Open (OP), Closed (CL),
Pending Remit (PR), Pending Petition for Review (RE), Remanded (RM) or Reopened (RO).
The Maintenance of an appeal indicates the general point of the appellate process
that an appeal is at, and what action or court activities are expected to occur.
For a case in the Court of Appeals, if judges from one district have been assigned
to an appeal from another district, the Summary displays both the district in which the appeal began
('Filing District') and the district whose judges have been assigned to decide the appeal. Such an
appeal will display as follows: Court of Appeals District I/IV indicating that the appeal is from
District I and that judges from District IV have been assigned to decide the appeal.
The Summary page displays the Circuit Court case numbers associated with the appeal,
if any, and the circuit court judge who was responsible for the case at the circuit court level. This
page also displays the Parties and Attorneys for an appeal and their addresses. If a party is
representing himself or herself, the party's address will appear. The Summary page also displays
Interested Parties (any entity not directly involved in an appeal, but involved in some other fashion) to
the appeal.
The Long Caption for an appeal can be viewed by selecting the Long Caption button.
The Long Caption is the official caption for an appeal, and it must appear on all briefs, motions and
petitions.
The Case History for an appeal can be viewed by selecting the Case History button.
The Case History can be viewed in either ascending date order or descending date order. If a document
such as a court opinion or certification is available on-line, the Activity entry for the document will
contain a link to the document on the Wisconsin Court System website.
Case History displays, in chronological order, all of the activities that have taken
place thus far in an appeal and activities that are scheduled to occur in the near future. An activity
that has taken place is identified by the status abbreviation OCCD; an activity that is scheduled to occur
in the near future is identified by the status abbreviation PEND. If an activity shows it is in RECV status,
the activity is awaiting court action.
Case History displays the Court in which an activity occurs – activities in the Supreme
Court will display as SC and activities in the Court of Appeals will display as CA. A short textual
description of the activity is displayed. If the activity arises from a submission of a party, the filing
date is displayed. The anticipated due date, if any, may be displayed for a pending activity. For motion
activities that have been decided by the court, the decision information is displayed.
CASE SEARCH
The Case Search allows you to easily search for appellate court cases using various
search parameters. For every search except for by Appeal Number, however, you must choose at least two
parameters.
Appeal Number
Case numbers for appeals in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Supreme Court consist
of a four-digit year, AP (the two-character (alpha) court type code), and a six-digit number (it is not
necessary to enter the appellate court case number suffix). If you know the appeal number, you can retrieve
the history for that appeal by entering the number into the Appeal Number section. Case numbers may be
entered such that the century part of the four-digit year and any leading zeroes of the six-digit number
can be omitted. For example, 04ap1 will be converted to 2004AP000001.
Circuit Court Case Number
If you know the circuit court case number, you can enter that number into the Circuit
Court Case Number section, using the numbering conventions discussed in the preceding section. For example,
04cf1 will be converted to 2004CF000001. You must also select a county when searching by Circuit Court Case
Number.
Party Name
The case search allows you to search for parties in appellate court cases. You can
search statewide for parties. If you are searching statewide, you must select Statewide and enter at least
3 characters in the Last Name of the Party Name field followed by the wildcard symbol '*'. You must also
enter at least 3 characters of the first or middle name in the Party Name field, which may also be followed
by a wildcard '*'. (Note: A wildcard search allows you to search for a limited amount of data by using an
'*'.)
You may limit the search to a single county by selecting that county in the County
field. You may limit the search to one of the 4 Court of Appeals districts by selecting the district
number in the District field. You may limit the search to either only Court of Appeals (CA) or Supreme
Court (SC) cases by entering CA or SC in the Court Type field
You may limit your search by Case Status by entering the appropriate code in the Case
Status field. Available statuses are closed cases (CL), open cases (OP), pending remit (PR), pending
petition for review (RE), remanded (RM) and reopened (RO).
Provide as much information as possible. The more information entered into the search,
the faster the results will be returned and there will be fewer records to review. If your search runs too
long, you will receive an error message and you will need to re-submit your search with more details.
Business Name
If one of the parties to an appeal is a business, you should use the Business Name
search. You must enter at least 3 characters of the Business Name field, followed by the wildcard symbol
'*'. As with a Party Name search, you may select additional search limitations, e.g., by county, district,
court type or case status. (Note: A wildcard search allows you to search for a limited amount of data by
using an '*'.)
Provide as much information as possible. The more information entered into the search,
the faster the results will be returned and there will be fewer records to review. If your search runs too
long, you will receive an error message and you will need to re-submit your search with more details.
Attorney Name
Using the Attorney Name search feature, you can retrieve all appeals in which a
particular attorney has been involved. You must enter at least 3 characters in the Last Name of the Attorney
Name field followed by the wildcard symbol '*'. You must also enter at least 3 characters in the First Name
field, which may also be followed by a wildcard '*. (Note: A wildcard search allows you to search for a
limited amount of data by using an '*'.)
As with other searches, you may select additional search limitations, e.g., by county,
district, court type or case status.
Provide as much information as possible. The more information entered into the search,
the faster the results will be returned and there will be fewer records to review. If your search runs too
long, you will receive an error message and you will need to re-submit your search with more details.
County
You can retrieve a list of all appeals arising from a single county by selecting that
county in the County field AND selecting at least one other search parameter, such as District or Case Status.
In addition, the County field can be used to limit searches by Appeal Number, Party Name, Business Name or
Attorney Name.
Court Type
You can retrieve a list of all appeals in either the Supreme Court (SC) or the Court of
Appeals (CA) by selecting that court type AND selecting at least one other search parameter. In addition,
the Court Type field can be used to limit searches by Appeal Number, Party Name, Business Name or Attorney
Name. If this field is left blank during a search, WSCCA will retrieve appeals from both courts.
District
You can retrieve a list of all appeals in a single district of the Court of Appeals by
selecting that district AND selecting at least one other search parameter. In addition the District field
can be used to limit searches by Appeal Number, Party Name, Business Name or Attorney Name. If this field
is left blank during a search, WSCCA will retrieve appeals from all districts of the Court of Appeals.
Filing Date
You can retrieve a list of all appeals filed on a particular date or date range. To
select by Filing Date, enter Month, Day and Year in the MM/DD/YYYY format. For a filing date range, select
the period you want from the 'for a period of' drop-down menu. To further narrow a Filing Date search, you
may select other search parameters, such as Court Type or District.
Case Status
You can limit a search by Case Status. The choices are Closed - CL; Open - OP;
PR - Pending Remit; RE - Pending Petition for Review; RM - Remanded; and RO - Reopened. If no limitation
is selected, the search will return appeals in all case statuses.
Class Code
You can retrieve a list of all appeals involving a particular Class Code. You must
enter the complete class code. For a window containing the class codes and class code descriptions, select
the Class Code link next to the Class code selection field. When searching by Class Code, you must also
supply another search field.
Note: The results of a Class Code search should not be construed as an exhaustive
listing of appeals of that case type. Class Codes have been modified over time so that a newly-created class
code will not necessarily retrieve older cases of a similar type. Further, the class codes assigned at the
circuit court level are generally selected by the parties. When a matter is appealed, the circuit court class
codes may be transferred to WSCCA, and the appellate court does not routinely consider whether the selected
class code is appropriate.
If your search in any of these areas runs too long, you will receive an error message
and you will need to re-submit your search with more details.
PUBLIC DOMAIN CITATION SEARCH
Wisconsin has assigned Public Domain Citation (PDC) numbers to all published opinions,
rules, orders or other items issued by the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals since January 1, 2000. See
SCR Rule 80.
The Public Domain Citation Search feature allows you to search WSCCA by all or part
of the PDC. There are 3 fields that may be selected: the PDC year, PDC Court and PDC Number. From the
drop-down boxes, you may select a year, the court that issued the opinion, and the PDC number. If you
know the PDC citation, complete all 3 fields and choose the [Search] button. The Summary for the appeal
associated with that PDC citation will display.
You need not complete all 3 fields. A search for a given year and a given court will
retrieve all appeals in which an opinion from that court received a PDC citation in that year. The case
list that is retrieved displays the PDC citations for each case on the list. To retrieve a particular case,
click on the Appeal Number. The PDC citation for that appeal also appears at the bottom of the Summary
page.
CITATION OF OFFICIAL PUBLISHERS SEARCH
If you know the citation of a published opinion from either the Wisconsin Reports as
published by Thomson/West (Wis. 2d) or the Wisconsin Reporter edition of the North Western Reporter published
by the West Group (N.W.2d), you can retrieve the appellate history through this feature. Insert the volume
and page number and from the Publisher drop-down box, choose either Wis.2d or N.W.2d, as appropriate.
DOCUMENT SEARCH
If you would like to search for scanned or electronically filed documents, you can retrieve these documents by searching with the following criteria:
- Appeal number - A unique number assigned to each appeal filed.
- District number - You may limit the search to one of the 4 Court of Appeals districts by selecting the district number.
- Inserted date of the document – You must select one of the periods of time when searching by date.
- Document title – The title assigned by the clerk when accepting the document into the Case Management system.
- Full text search - Allows you to search for words or phrases within a text-searchable document. Not all documents are text searchable.
GLOSSARY
The definitions in this glossary are only intended to provide a general understanding
of the information on this Web site. The terms and definitions apply to the Court of Appeals and the
Supreme Court, as appropriate. These definitions are not all-inclusive and are not to be relied on as legal
authority.
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Appeal
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As a general rule, most appeals are
initiated by the filing of a notice of appeal for review of a
decision made by a circuit court.
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Appeal number
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A unique number assigned to each
appeal filed. Each appeal number has a four-digit prefix
identifying the year the appeal was filed, followed by AP, and a
six-digit number, e.g. 2001AP000001. If appropriate, a suffix is
added the to the number to distinguish case types, e.g. a “CR”
suffix indicates a criminal appeal, and a “W” suffix indicates
a petition for supervisory writ.
Certain types of filings are
assigned numbers with the filing year followed by XX. These
matters do not fit into a regular case category, but are filed and
reviewed by the court.
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Appellant
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The party that files a notice of
appeal.
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Brief
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A document setting forth the legal
arguments of the parties in an appeal.
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Caption
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A listing of all the parties to an
action and their positions in the case, e.g. Plaintiff and
Defendant. In an appeal, appellant, respondent, cross appellant,
cross respondent or petitioner designates the parties’ positions
in the appeal. The Short Caption is an abbreviation of this
information.
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Certification
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A request by the Court of Appeals
that the Supreme Court take jurisdiction of a case and issue a
decision. The Supreme Court determines if the certification will
be granted. The Supreme Court may also, on its own motion, take
jurisdiction of an appeal pending before the Court of Appeals.
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Certified Question
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A question of law filed with the
Supreme Court from another jurisdiction. A “CQ” appeal number
suffix is used to identify this case type.
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Citation
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A reference to a
publication that contains the official copy of all published
opinions, rules, and orders of the Supreme Court and Court of
Appeals.
Public domain citation: Effective
January 1, 2000, a number assigned by the clerk of court to all
published opinions, rules, orders, or other items issued by the
Supreme Court or Court of Appeals.
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Class
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This designates the type of case on
appeal, e.g. criminal-felony, criminal-misdemeanor,
family-divorce.
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Circuit court case number
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A unique number assigned by a
circuit court when an action was initially filed.
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Closed - CL
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A case status indicating an
appellate court case has had a disposition and is no longer active
(open).
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Confidentiality
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Case records in certain case types
are restricted or confidential by statute. Restricted or
confidential information has been removed from viewing in these
case types.
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Court Reporter’s Statement on
Transcript
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A statement filed by a court
reporter notifying the court that the transcripts requested for an
appeal have been filed with the circuit court.
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Court Record (Docket Entries)
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A listing of all recorded activities
that have taken place in the circuit court.
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Cross Appellant
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A respondent in an appeal who files
a notice of cross appeal.
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Disposition
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The decision of the court. General
types of dispositions:
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Docket
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A listing of all recorded activities
that have taken place or that are scheduled to take place in a
case before the court.
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Docketing Statement
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A statement filed by the appellant
in certain cases that allow the court to determine if an appeal
should be placed on the Expedited Appeals (Fast-Track) calendar.
Only civil cases in which attorneys represent all sides are
eligible for the Expedited Appeals calendar. An “FT” suffix
is used to identify Expedited Appeals.
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FRO
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Abbreviation for “IT IS FURTHER
ORDERED.”
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Maintenance
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Provides information on certain
filings that have occurred on a case.
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Motion
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A request to the court asking for a
specific ruling, e.g., a motion asking for an extension of time to
file a brief.
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OCCD
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Indicates the listed activity has
taken place on the date shown.
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Open - OP
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A case status indicating an
appellate court case has not had a disposition.
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Opinion
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The court’s written decision. All
of the Supreme Court opinions are published and Court of Appeals
opinions that meet certain criteria are published. All published
opinions receive citation numbers.
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Order
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A document issued by the court
setting forth a decision made in response to a motion or other
proceeding.
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ORD
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Abbreviation for “IT IS ORDERED.”
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Panel
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The Wisconsin statutes identify case
types that are to be heard by one Court of Appeals Judge or by a
panel of three Court of Appeals Judges. 1/3 Judge indicates how
many judges will decide an appeal.
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PEND
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Generally indicates the court is
waiting for the listed activity to occur on the date shown. There
may be “PEND” activities remaining after an appeal
disposition.
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Pending Remittitur - PR
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A case status indicating that a
decision has been issued and the case is waiting for the case
record, where one was filed, to be returned to the circuit court,
or the file to be closed, if there is no case record.
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Petitioner
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A party who files a petition with
the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court.
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Petition for leave to appeal
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A petition filed with the Court of
Appeals asking the court to review a non-final order of the
circuit court. An “LV” suffix is used to identify this appeal
type.
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Petition for original action
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A document filed with the Supreme
Court requesting that the court take jurisdiction of an action
that has not been filed in a lower court. An “OA” suffix is
used to identify this appeal type.
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Petition for review
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A document filed with the Supreme
Court requesting review of a Court of Appeals decision.
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Petition for writ (Supervisory,
Mandamus, Prohibition, Habeas Corpus)
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A document filed with the Court of
Appeals or Supreme Court asking the court to exercise its
supervisory jurisdiction. A “WSCCA” suffix is used to
identify this appeal type.
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Petition to bypass
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A document filed with the Supreme
Court during the pendency of an appeal in the Court of Appeals
asking the Supreme Court to take jurisdiction of the appeal prior
to the issuance of a decision by the Court of Appeals.
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PDC
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Abbreviation for Public Domain
Citation.
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Pre-appeal motion (XX Motion)
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A motion filed with the Court of
Appeals before the initiation of an appeal or other proceeding,
e.g. motion for an extension of time to file a notice of appeal in
a criminal matter. These motions will have a status as OP if
there is a pending motion, and CL if there is no pending motion.
Also includes filings that do not fall into a regular case
category.
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Public domain citation
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Effective January 1, 2000, a number
assigned to all published opinions, rules, orders, or other items
issued by the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals.
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RAP
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Abbreviation for Rules of Appellate
Procedure; Chapter 809 of the Wisconsin statutes.
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Pending Petition For Review – RE
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A case status that indicates the
filing of a petition for review with the Supreme Court from a
decision of the Court of Appeals.
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Record
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All the papers filed with the
circuit court including the decision of the circuit court judge.
The record is sent to the Court of Appeals after an appeal has
been initiated.
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RECV
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Indicates that a particular
activity, e.g. motion, is under consideration by the court.
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Respondent
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A party adverse to an appellant or
petitioner.
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Remanded - RM
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A case status that indicates a case
is in the current court due to it being referred from a higher
court. This term can also indicate that the case record has been
returned to the circuit court for further action, but the case is
still open in the court that issued the remand order.
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Remittitur
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A document issued when the case
record is returned to the circuit court. The remittitur contains
an abbreviated statement regarding the court's decision.
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Reopened – RO
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A case status that indicates a case
has been reopened. This can occur for a variety of reasons.
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Statement on Transcript
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A statement filed by an appellant or
cross appellant notifying the court of the transcripts ordered for
the appeal.
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Status
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Provides information on whether a
case is still pending, whether a decision has been issued, or if
the case is closed.
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SRT
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Abbreviation for statement on
transcript.
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Suffix
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Case type identifiers used in the
appellate courts: W- Writ, LV – petition for leave to appeal,
AC – Accelerated Appeal, FT – Expedited Appeal, NM –
No-Merit Appeal, D – Attorney Discipline Case, J- Judicial
Discipline Case.
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XX Motion
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See pre-appeal motion.
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