SB 645

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 discovery

of electronic information such that, in the absence of the moving party showing

substantial need and good cause, a party is not required 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