Writing on Wisconsin Legal Rights
An educational legal blog focused on highlighting important legal issues for Wisconsin workers, families, and individuals. Contact UsBiometric Employee Data and Wisconsin Employment Law
Biometric Screening By Employers Can Pose Significant Threats to Workplace Privacy Employers increasingly use biometric screening as their preferred security option for employee access to workplaces. Fingerprint, handprint, facial recognition, and retina and iris...
How Worker’s Compensation Applies to At-Home Employees
WI Worker’s Compensation Covers Remote Employees Working from Home With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, many employees throughout Wisconsin transitioned from a traditional office setting to working remotely from home for the first time. Since then, new...
Congratulations!
Hawks Quindel, S.C. is proud to announce that our very own Katherine L. Charlton (employment & labor), Amy L. Shapiro (family), Aaron N. Halstead (worker’s compensation), Nicholas E. Fairweather (employment & labor), William E. Parsons, (employee benefits),...
Federal Wage and Hour Law Applies to Telework Arrangements
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees and employers alike are having to adjust to telework arrangements. Telework situations vary, but telework usually entails employees working from home instead of coming in daily to a traditional office. In terms of...
Health Insurance Deadlines Extended During COVID-19 Pandemic
Group Health Plans and COBRA Deadlines Extended During COVID-19 Pandemic COVID Pandemic Has Jeopardized Health Care Coverage for Millions Many businesses have been forced to lay off workers in response to the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These...
WI Workers Compensation Claims Require Support from a Medical Doctor
The Practitioner Who Evaluates You Matters As the U.S. healthcare industry grows in complexity, healthcare professionals without traditional doctorates in medicine, like physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners, have increasingly assumed primary and specialized...
Family Law Article by Amy Shapiro and Kathy Charlton Is Published in the Wisconsin Journal of Family Law.
Milwaukee family law attorneys Amy Shapiro and Kathy Charlton authored “Pulkkila Highlights Enforcement Language in Marital Settlement Agreements” in the October, 2020 edition of the Wisconsin Journal of Family Law, a publication of the State Bar of Wisconsin. The...
Coronavirus-related family and sick leave benefits continue
As summer turns to fall, the coronavirus pandemic rages on. Despite continued high case counts across the country, some aspects of daily life have resumed: most businesses are open for in-person service to masked customers, doctor’s offices are resuming non-essential...
Worker’s Compensation for Disability or Death Due to COVID-19
Work-Related COVID-19 Infections are Covered Under the Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Act COVID-19 has caused massive uncertainty not only in the workplace, but the everyday lives of those who have been affected by the disease. We have written previously regarding...
Attorney Summer Murshid Joins NELA Executive Board
Attorney Summer Murshid has joined the Board for the National Employment Lawyer’s Association for a three-year term. In doing so, she becomes part of an esteemed group of 24 attorneys from around the country who have dedicated their working lives to representing...
Wisconsin Now Allows Tip Pooling to Cooks and Dishwashers
Changes in Wisconsin Tip-Pooling Law: What you need to know if your employer practices tip-pooling The practice of tip-pooling has existed for decades in the Wisconsin service industry. In a nutshell, tip-pooling allows other employees who would not otherwise receive...
COVID-19 Screenings at Work and Employee Legal Rights
Employees Rights Regarding COVID-19 Screenings at Work The COVID-19 Pandemic has created one of the largest work disruptions in history, leaving public and private sectors alike to weigh difficult decisions regarding employees’ physical health and organizational...
What Are the Potential Consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Bostock?
This blog was drafted by Hayley Archer (Madison office) and Katherine Charlton (Milwaukee office). This article is the second of a two-part series that explains the recent landmark Supreme Court decision, Bostock v. Clayton, its dissents, and what it all means for...
Wisconsin Car Accident Report Guide: 6 Essential Steps
What to Do After a Wisconsin Car Accident The Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates there are about 130,000 car crashes per year statewide. While the odds of you getting in a Wisconsin car crash in any given year are small (about 2%), over the course of...
Predicting How Much Money a Long Term Disability Lawsuit Is Worth
What Types of Damages Can a LTDI Lawsuit Possibly Win in Court? If you have exhausted the administrative remedies under your group long-term disability insurance plan, your next step is to file a lawsuit in court. Most people who find themselves in this position want...
TITLE VII PROTECTS LGBT EMPLOYEES
This article is the first of a two-part series that explains the recent landmark Supreme Court decision, Bostock v. Clayton, its dissents, and what it all means for workers in Wisconsin. Decision Summary An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or...
Hawks Quindel S.C. will be closed this Friday in observation of Juneteenth Day.
Hawks Quindel S. C. will be closed this Friday in observation of Juneteenth Day. On June 19th, 1865, two years after Abraham Lincoln made the executive decision to free enslaved Black people in America, Union soldiers finally went to Texas to enforce the Emancipation...
Charlton Joins Wisconsin Law Foundation Grants Committee
Attorney Katherine Charlton joins the Wisconsin Law Foundation grants committee on June 1, 2020. Charlton is a Fellow of the Wisconsin Law Foundation which promotes public understanding of the law and seeks to improve the administration of justice in Wisconsin...
4 Steps to Applying for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in Wisconsin
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in Wisconsin: When and how to apply for this vital benefit A few months ago, in response to COVID-19 and the Safer-at-Home Order, we published a COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits Guide to demystify Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance (UI)...
Getting Divorced? Pay Attention to Enforcement Provisions in Your Marital Settlement Agreement.
Your Options for Enforcing the Terms of Your Marital Settlement Agreement Are Important. An important aspect of any divorce agreement is not only what you agree on but how and whether the agreement can be enforced. In their Marital Settlement Agreements (MSAs),...
Whistleblowers Who Report Paycheck Protection Fraud Can Win Money
False Claims Against the Paycheck Protection Program Two federal laws—one old, one new—could dominate headlines for the months to come. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is intended to provide relief to individuals and businesses...
Workplace Options for Workers at High Risk for COVID-19
How Employees at High Risk for COVID-19 Can Stay Safe in the Workplace During the COVID-19 Pandemic, individuals with serious and chronic health conditions have been determined to be at a higher risk of getting extremely ill from COVID-19 should they contract the...
Undocumented Workers & Workers Compensation Benefits in Wisconsin
Undocumented Workers Are Entitled to Wisconsin Workers Compensation Benefits Almost all Wisconsin workers are entitled to Workers Compensation benefits when they are injured at work and their injury requires medical treatment, including undocumented workers. Wisconsin...
Trabajadores indocumentados y beneficios de compensación al trabajador en Wisconsin
¿Los trabajadores indocumentados tienen derecho a los beneficios de compensaión al trabajador? Sí. Casi todos los trabajadores en el estado de Wisconsin tienen el derecho a beneficios de Compensación al Trabajador cuando se lesionan en el trabajo y la lesión requiere...
Attorney Quindel Appears on WPR’s The Morning Show
On Thursday, April 16, 2020, Attorney Barbara Zack Quindel appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio's The Morning Show to discuss employees' rights in the workplace in light of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To listen to the episode, please visit WPR's website...