Wisconsin Casualty Study Guide

Two systems carry the Wisconsin-specific weight on the casualty exam: auto and worker’s compensation. Auto is where Wisconsin is prescriptive — it tells insurers what must be in the policy, coverage by coverage, with different rules for each. Comp is where Wisconsin is expansive — three separate triggers instead of one employee count, and a regulator that is not the insurance department.

Get the four-way split in the auto statute and you have most of the state content on this paper.

Auto — one subsection, four different rules

Section 632.32(4) and (4m) govern what a Wisconsin auto liability policy must contain. National material compresses this into “UM and UIM must be offered.” That is wrong three times over.

Uninsured motorist is MANDATORY and cannot be rejected. “Uninsured motorist coverage, in limits of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident” must be included (§632.32(4)(a)1.). Not offered — included. There is one carve-out, and it is obscure enough to be a favourite: the mandate excludes “a policy written by a town mutual organized under ch. 612.”

Underinsured motorist is optional — but the offer must be written and the answer need not be. The insurer must give one named insured written notice of UIM availability (§632.32(4m)(a)). Then: “acceptance or rejection of underinsured motorist coverage by a person after being notified under par. (a) need not be in writing” (§632.32(4m)(b)). If accepted, the insurer must include it at at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident (§632.32(4m)(d)).

Medical payments must be included but may be rejected. At least $1,000 per person (§632.32(4)(a)2.) — and “the named insured may reject medical payments coverage” (§632.32(4)(bc)). No writing required to reject.

But writing is required to get med pay back. Once one named insured rejects, the coverage “need not be provided in a subsequent renewal policy issued by the same insurer unless a named insured under the policy requests it in writing.”

And note which coverage carries the bigger floor. UM is the mandatory one at 25/50; UIM is the optional one at 50/100. The coverage you can decline has the larger statutory minimum.

Limits, fault, and the residual market

Minimum liability is 25/50/10 — $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, $10,000 property damage (§344.01(2)(d), replicated at §344.33(2)).

Wisconsin is a tort / at-fault state. It mandates no PIP and is not a no-fault jurisdiction, whatever a national outline’s map might suggest.

Fault runs on modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar (§895.045): a claimant recovers only if their negligence is not greater than that of the person from whom they seek recovery. At 50% you still recover, reduced by your share; at 51% you recover nothing. “Not greater than” is the phrase — a claimant exactly equal in fault is still inside the door.

For drivers the voluntary market declines, the Wisconsin Automobile Insurance Plan (WAIP) is the assigned-risk mechanism, and auto nonrenewal notices have to explain how to apply to it.

Worker’s compensation — three triggers, not one

Most states publish a single employee-count threshold. Wisconsin publishes three, and they are not alternatives to choose between. Any one of them requires coverage.

Three or more full-time or part-time employees — and coverage is required on the day you employ the third person, not at the end of a quarter or a renewal cycle.

One employee is enough if the employer paid combined gross wages of $500 or more in any calendar quarter.

Farmers at six or more workers on the same day for any 20 days during the calendar year.

Out-of-state employers with employees working in Wisconsin are covered too.

The administering agency is the one candidates most often get wrong: the Department of Workforce Development (DWD), Worker’s Compensation Division. Not OCI, and not a standalone workers’ compensation commission. Temporary total disability pays 66-2/3% of the average weekly wage, capped at a maximum tied to the state average weekly wage that DWD resets annually — so quote the rate, not a dollar figure.

On deadlines, read the section captions carefully. §102.12 — “Notice of injury, exception, laches” — carries both the notice-of-injury rule and the two-year bar on filing an application. §102.17 is a procedure section; its sub. (4) adds the longer outer limits (twelve years for occupational disease, six for traumatic injury). The two-year clock is in 102.12, not 102.17.

Where casualty meets insolvency

One cross-reference to carry out of this chapter. When a casualty insurer fails, the Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund caps its obligation at $300,000 on a single risk, loss or life (§646.31(4)(ap)) — but the subsection opens with the words “except in regard to worker’s compensation insurance.”

Comp claims are outside the cap entirely. Wisconsin caps a liability claim and refuses to cap an injured worker’s, which tells you something about how the legislature ranks them.