Legal Question in Business Law in Wisconsin

While I am not an expert in employment law, WI generally allows winners in any type of lawsuit to recover actual reasonable attorney fees when that the judge finds that any part of the other party's case was frivolous, i.e., with "no reasonable basis in law or fact and brought primarily to harass," etc. As a practical matter, however, this is a difficult standard to meet, but proving that the entire case was brought as a part of a setup or outright lie should go a long way towards meeting it. Regrettably, however, the next inquiry will be whether or not your fees were "reasonable," and judges often have different views on that issue than lawyers in private practice. You will also need to prove how much of the fees related specifically to the part of the claim which was found frivolous, as opposed to those parts where the opposing party also had a good faith argument. Of course, if the case settles, the attorney fee claims are usually a part of the settlement so all further claims, including fee claims, are waived.

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