My Track Record

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals releases its annual report in February or March.  In 2017, the Court of Appeals affirmed 90% of the civil orders and judgments that it reviewed.  This does not mean that 10% of civil appellants were successful.  This 90% figure excludes reversals, but it also excludes orders and judgments that were affirmed in part and reversed in part; orders and judgments that were affirmed and remanded for further proceedings; orders and judgments that were modified; and appeals that were dismissed (never a good result).  In reality, civil appellants have less than a 10% chance of any success on appeal.

As discussed in the last post, I have litigated 63 appeals and cross-appeals to a Court of Appeals decision.  By "litigated," I mean that I filed at least one appellate brief.  I am also not counting those appeals that settled before the Court of Appeals released its decision, even if I filed at least one appellate brief before the case settled.  I represented appellants in 52 of these litigated appeals and cross-appeals and respondents in the other 11.

I have obtained some level of success for 19 of my 52 appellants.  This number includes complete reversals, such as Ferris v. Location 3 Corporation; Harvey v. Frank J. & Mary F. Miller Family Trust; Honeyager v. City of New Berlin; Byrd v. Landowski; Griswold v. Rogich; and Wilks v. J.P. Morgan Chase.  This number also includes partial reversals, some of which didn't feel like "wins," such as Below v. Norton; Novell v. Migliaccio; and Malzewski v. Rapkin.  The bottom line is that the affirmance percentage on civil appeals is only 63.5% when I represent the appellants.

I have obtained affirmances for 10 of my 11 respondents.  The only case in which the appellant achieved any success was Ording v. Wisconsin State Home Services, Inc., in which the Court of Appeals held that the jury's verdict in favor of my clients was supported by credible evidence but the trial court inadequately exercised its discretion in awarding my clients their attorneys' fees.

I represented the petitioner in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Below v. Norton, which resulted in an affirmance of the Court of Appeals decision.  While affirmance of the Court of Appeals decision is not a good result for a petitioner, the Wisconsin Supreme Court remanded the case to the circuit court on one issue and clearly communicated its disagreement with how the lower courts handled this issue.

I represented the respondent in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Novell v. Migliaccio and obtained an affirmance of the Court of Appeals decision.

I represented the petitioner in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Melchert v. Pro Electric Contractors, which resulted in an affirmance of the Court of Appeals decision and Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley's outstanding dissenting opinion (joined by Justice Daniel Kelly) 

According to the 2017 Court of Appeals Annual Report, the Wisconsin Supreme Court granted only 32 of the 326 petitions for review that were filed in civil cases that year.  I have filed only three petitions for Wisconsin Supreme Court review, and two of them were granted.  I have argued against six petitions for Wisconsin Supreme Court review - five were denied and one was granted.

While I am pleased with my level of appellate success, potential appellants must understand that they face a difficult road on appeal regardless of who represents them.