Date of enactment:
2023 Senate Bill 613 Date of publication*:
2023 WISCONSIN ACT
AN ACT to create 895.30 of the statutes; relating to: limiting the recovery of noneconomic damages from a commer-
cial motor vehicle carrier.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in
senate and assembly, do enact as follows:
SECTION 1. 895.30 of the statutes is created to read:
895.30 Claims against commercial motor vehicle
carriers; limitation of damages. (1) In this section:
(a) “Commercial motor vehicle” means a motor vehi-
cle designed or used to transport property and having one
or more of the characteristics described under s. 340.01
(8) (a), (b), or (d).
(b) “Commercial motor vehicle carrier” means any
person that transports property by commercial motor
vehicle upon the public highways.
(2) The total noneconomic damages a person may
recover from a commercial motor vehicle carrier in a
civil action founded on tort for injury, death, or other loss
resulting from an act or omission by an employee of the
commercial motor vehicle carrier while acting within the
scope of employment may not exceed $1,000,000.
(3) A court in an action tried without a jury shall make
a finding as to noneconomic damages without regard to
the limit under sub. (2). If the court finds that noneco-
nomic damages exceed the limit, the court shall make any
reduction required under s. 895.045 and shall award as
noneconomic damages the lesser of the reduced amount
or the limit. If an action is before a jury, the jury shall
make a finding as to noneconomic damages without
regard to the limit under sub. (2). If the jury finds that
noneconomic damages exceed the limit, the jury shall
make any reduction required under s. 895.045, and the
court shall award as noneconomic damages the lesser of
the reduced amount or the limit.
SECTION 2.0Initial applicability.
(1) This act first applies to an act or omission that
occurs on the effective date of this subsection.
* Section 991.11, WISCONSIN STATUTES: Effective date of acts. “Every act and every portion of an act enacted by the legislature over the governor’s
partial veto which does not expressly prescribe the time when it takes effect shall take effect on the day after its date of publication.”