AB 773

Discovery procedures

This bill makes certain changes to discovery procedure in court proceedings.

Under the bill, the court must limit the frequency or extent of discovery if it

determines that the discovery sought is cumulative or duplicative, or can be obtained

from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive

or that the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit

or is not proportional to the claims and defenses at issue. In addition, the bill limits

the type of electronic information that can be discovered such that a court may not

require a party to keep or provide the following types of electronic information: data

that cannot be retrieved without substantial additional programming or without

transforming it into another form before search and retrieval can be achieved;

backup data that are substantially duplicative of data that are more accessible

elsewhere; legacy data remaining from obsolete systems that are unintelligible on

successor systems; and any other data that are not available to the producing party

in the ordinary course of business and that the party identifies as not reasonably

accessible because of undue burden or cost.

The bill also creates a mandatory disclosure requirement that requires a party,

without awaiting a discovery request, to disclose any agreement under which any

person, other than an attorney who is permitted to charge a contingent fee for

representing a party, has a right to receive compensation that is contingent on and

sourced from any proceeds of the civil action.

CLASS ACTIONS

This bill creates detailed procedures relating to class actions where previously

Wisconsin had few procedural requirements relating to class actions. The

procedures implemented in the bill closely track the federal procedures for filing and

maintaining a class action, and are similar to changes proposed by the Wisconsin

Judicial Council in 2017 petition number 17-03 to the Supreme Court. The bill

creates prerequisites for filing a class action; differentiates between three different

types of class actions that may be certified; creates requirements that the court must

follow with regard to certifying a class, notifying potential class members, and

entering a judgment; enumerates procedures for conducting a class action; requires

the court to be involved in settling a class action; describes certain aspects of

appellate procedure for a class action; requires the court to select counsel for the class

in a class action; and creates a procedure for recovery of attorney fees.

consumer lawsuit lending

This bill creates provisions governing consumer lawsuit lending transactions.

Under the bill, a “consumer" is an individual who is or may become a plaintiff or

claimant in a civil action or other proceeding (dispute). “Consumer lawsuit lending"

means 1) providing money to a consumer, for the consumer to use for any purpose

other than prosecuting the consumer's dispute, with repayment of the money