Title

  • Long-Arm to Protect the Unarmed from Harm by the Armed: Why Wisconsin Needs a New Statute to Ensure Its Residents Can Obtain Restraining Orders against Foreign Residents Who Threaten Them

Creator

Published In

Date

  • 2012

Volume

  • 2012

Issue

  • 4

Bibliographic Citation

  • 2012 Wis. L. Rev. 1041 (2012)

Abstract

  • A government's primary responsibility is to render security to its citizens. The State of Wisconsin cannot currently perform this duty because Wisconsin courts do not have clear authority to protect the state's residents who are threatened or abused by people living in other states. Specifically, Wisconsin courts lack authority to grant restraining orders against nonresidents who threaten Wisconsin citizens with domestic violence. Domestic violence is a global epidemic that is similarly problematic in Wisconsin. Frighteningly, domestic violence homicide is one of the leading causes of premature death among U.S. women. Domestic violence and harassment are becoming easier to perpetrate, and both cross state borders with increasing frequency. A state government must be able to offer protection to its residents who are threatened with interstate domestic violence.
    The primary manner in which state civil courts protect state residents against domestic violence is by issuing restraining orders against those who threaten to harm the residents. But a state court can issue a restraining order against an abuser only if state statutes grant the court personal jurisdiction over the abuser. Wisconsin's statutes are ambiguous and do not currently provide Wisconsin courts with sufficient authority to exercise jurisdiction over nonresidents who make tortious communications into Wisconsin. After illuminating the prevalence and severity of interstate domestic violence, discussing the benefits of restraining orders, and revealing the flaw in Wisconsin's current law, this Comment proposes a statute that would eliminate the flaw so that Wisconsin courts could exercise jurisdiction over nonresidents whose communications into Wisconsin harm the state's residents.

Description

  • Comment

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