Wisconsin Supreme Court Adopts Significant Changes To State Class Action Statute

On December 21st, the Wisconsin Supreme Court entered an order adopting proposed amendments to Wisconsin's class action procedures in state court actions, which are "intended to align [the state rule] with the federal class action rule, Fed. R. Civ. P. 23." See In re proposed amendments to Wisconsin Statutes s.s. 803.08 and 426.110, Pet. No. 17-03 (entered Dec. 21, 2017), available here. The order completes an administrative rules process involving public hearing and comment that took place over the course of 2017. The Wisconsin Supreme Court's vote to adopt the proposed amendments was unanimous.

The order replaces Wisconsin's current, one-sentence class action statute, Wis. Stat. 803.08—itself a holdover from the nineteenth-century Field Code. The new class action rule will not be effective until July 1, 2018, although, under the terms of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's order, there will be a presumption that the new rule also applies to cases pending as of the