An updated 2023 Edition can be found here: 2023 Equal Rights Decision Digest
The Equal Rights Decision Digest is a digital resource containing summaries of significant administrative and judicial decisions arising under Wisconsin's equal rights laws. This online edition of the Digest includes summaries of decisions through the end of calendar year 2022. The summaries are organized according to their subject matter. Where full-text versions of the summarized decisions are available, they are linked to. Summaries of decisions on particular topics can be located by using any of these methods:
The ER Decision Digest is a collection of summaries of significant decisions of the Labor and Industry Review Commission and its predecessor (the DILHR Industrial Commission), the (former) Wisconsin Personnel Commission, and the Wisconsin courts, in cases arising under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act, Open Housing and Public Accommodations and Amusements Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and other laws within the program responsibilities of the ERD.
The summaries are organized according to their subject matter, under a decimal-based Subject Matter Index system. Within each category of the Subject Matter Index system, the summaries are reproduced in reverse chronological order. Summaries of decisions of administrative agencies and courts are not separated. If there is a full-text reproduction of the decision available on the internet (either at the LIRC site, or, in the case of a published court decision, at the court's site), there will be a link to it.
There are a number of ways to conduct research in the online version of the ER Digest which is provided here at the LIRC website. Please read tips on searching for decisions in the ER Digest.
The 2017 and 2015 Editions of the ER Digests may be purchased from:
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Contact Document Sales for price information.
Copies of unpublished decisions summarized in the Digest are generally available for inspection and copying in the offices of the Equal Rights Division in Madison and Milwaukee. Copies of decisions of the Labor and Industry Review Commission are also available at the Commission's office.
N.B.:
The Digest is intended only as an informational service and research aid. The decision summaries do not represent policy or interpretation by the Equal Rights Division or the Labor and Industry Review Commission.
Persons using this Digest to locate decisions to be cited to a court as authority should take note of sec. 809.23(3)(a), Wis. Stats., which provides that except as provided in sec. 809.23(3)(b) regarding authored decisions issued after July 1, 2009, an unpublished decision of the Court of Appeals is of no precedential value and for that reason may not be cited in any court in this state as precedent or authority. Such decisions are reported in this Digest as an informational service only, and their use contrary to sec. 809.23(3), Wis. Stats., is not encouraged.
The summaries collected in the ER Digest are arranged under a decimal-based subject matter index system in which topics branch to more specific subtopics:
Tips on Searching: There are a number of different ways to search in the ER Digest for decisions on a particular topic as described below.
Search for topics in the hypertext Subject Matter Index, in which topics can be explored at increasing levels of specificity. Each topic listed is a hypertext link to a list of the subtopics under it. When there are no further subtopics under a topic, clicking on it will take the user to the collection of summaries under that topic.
Search for topics in the "Full" version of the Subject Matter Index, in which all topics, at all levels of specificity, are listed in sequence according to the overall organizational structure of the Digest. Topics which have summaries collected under them are hypertext links which will take the user to those summaries. (Due to the length of the Subject Matter Index, using this method requires some scrolling.)
Search for topics in the Alphabetical List of Topics. Each topic has hypertext links to the sections in the Digest collecting summaries under that topic.
Search for specific cases in the Alphabetical Case Table. Each case listed has hypertext links to the sections in the Digest where a summary of that decision appears. Only court cases are listed in the Case Table.