Case XX Dating

Motions that are filed with the Court of Appeals before the initiation of an appeal or other proceedings, e.g., a motion for extension of time to file a notice of appeal in a criminal matter, are not given an 'AP' case number, but rather are given an 'XX' number. E.g., 2005XX000153. XX-motions also include filings that do not fall into a regular case category. The year appearing with an XX-motion represents the calendar year in which the first pre-appeal motion was filed. A pre-appeal motion will have a status of OP if there is a pending motion, and CL if there is no pending motion.

To use WSCCA, you must enter data into one of the selection windows and select the [Search] button. Any results display in a list. To view the details of a retrieved case, select the link. For example, on a Simple Case search, you will retrieve a list of cases. To view a case, select the Case Number link. If only one appeal matches the search criteria, that appeal will be displayed. If your search results in multiple cases, you can move through the results by selecting the Next or Previous link. To return to the list, select the Return to List link.

The Summary for any case can be printed by selecting the Printable Version link. The case history for an appeal also displays in PDF format. To view the PDF version of the case history, select the PDF Version link.

The Summary for each appeal displays basic information about the appeal: Short Caption, Status, Maintenance, Class, Court, Panel, Disposition, and County.

The Status of an appeal indicates whether the matter is Open (OP), Closed (CL), Pending Remit (PR), Pending Petition for Review (RE), Remanded (RM) or Reopened (RO).

The Maintenance of an appeal indicates the general point of the appellate process that an appeal is at, and what action or court activities are expected to occur.

For a case in the Court of Appeals, if judges from one district have been assigned to an appeal from another district, the Summary displays both the district in which the appeal began ('Filing District') and the district whose judges have been assigned to decide the appeal. Such an appeal will display as follows: Court of Appeals District I/IV indicating that the appeal is from District I and that judges from District IV have been assigned to decide the appeal.

The Summary page displays the Circuit Court case numbers associated with the appeal, if any, and the circuit court judge who was responsible for the case at the circuit court level. This page also displays the Parties and Attorneys for an appeal and their addresses. If a party is representing himself or herself, the party's address will appear. The Summary page also displays Interested Parties (any entity not directly involved in an appeal, but involved in some other fashion) to the appeal.

The Long Caption for an appeal can be viewed by selecting the Long Caption button. The Long Caption is the official caption for an appeal, and it must appear on all briefs, motions and petitions.

The Case History for an appeal can be viewed by selecting the Case History button. The Case History can be viewed in either ascending date order or descending date order. If a document such as a court opinion or certification is available on-line, the Activity entry for the document will contain a link to the document on the Wisconsin Court System Web site.

Case History displays, in chronological order, all of the activities that have taken place thus far in an appeal and activities that are scheduled to occur in the near future. An activity that has taken place is identified by the status abbreviation OCCD; an activity that is scheduled to occur in the near future is identified by the status abbreviation PEND. If an activity shows it is in RECV status, the activity is awaiting court action.

Case History displays the Court in which an activity occurs – activities in the Supreme Court will display as SC and activities in the Court of Appeals will display as CA. A short textual description of the activity is displayed. If the activity arises from a submission of a party, the filing date is displayed. The anticipated due date, if any, may be displayed for a pending activity. For motion activities that have been decided by the court, the decision information is displayed.

Case Search

The Case Search allows you to easily search for appellate court cases using various search parameters. For every search except for by Appeal Number, however, you must choose at least two parameters.

Appeal Number

Case numbers for appeals in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Supreme Court consist of a four-digit year, AP (the two-character (alpha) court type code), and a six-digit number (it is not necessary to enter the appellate court case number suffix). If you know the appeal number, you can retrieve the history for that appeal by entering the number into the Appeal Number section. Case numbers may be entered such that the century part of the four-digit year and any leading zeroes of the six-digit number can be omitted. For example, 04ap1 will be converted to 2004AP000001.

Circuit Court Case Number

If you know the circuit court case number, you can enter that number into the Circuit Court Case Number section, using the numbering conventions discussed in the preceding section. For example, 04cf1 will be converted to 2004CF000001. You must also select a county when searching by Circuit Court Case Number.

Party Name

The case search allows you to search for parties in appellate court cases. You can search statewide for parties. If you are searching statewide, you must select Statewide and enter at least 3 characters in the Last Name of the Party Name field followed by the wildcard symbol '*'. You must also enter at least 3 characters of the first or middle name in the Party Name field, which may also be followed by a wildcard '*'. (Note: A wildcard search allows you to search for a limited amount of data by using an '*'.)

You may limit the search to a single county by selecting that county in the County field. You may limit the search to one of the 4 Court of Appeals districts by selecting the district number in the District field. You may limit the search to either only Court of Appeals (CA) or Supreme Court (SC) cases by entering CA or SC in the Court Type field

You may limit your search by Case Status by entering the appropriate code in the Case Status field. Available statuses are closed cases (CL), open cases (OP), pending remit (PR), pending petition for review (RE), remanded (RM) and reopened (RO).