Wisconsin Landmark Legal Settlements
Redlining settlement is reached
American Family Insurance Company in 1995 agreed to pay $14.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit that charged that the Madison-based insurance company had "redlined" minority neighborhoods.
The settlement of the 5-year-old class action suit was seen as a legal landmark in the effort to eliminate racial discrimination in the sale of homeowner's insurance. The settlement resolved violations of the Federal Fair Housing Act and compensated victims of insurance discrimination.
The Department of Justice alleged that American Family had discriminated in the way it sold insurance in the inner city.
State agrees to extensive revamping of Milwaukee child welfare
In 2009 Wisconsin agreed to a plan aimed at fixing persistent problems in Milwaukee County's state-run child welfare program.
The 2008 death of 13-month-old foster child Christopher Thomas was seen by child right advocates of evidence of the continued weaknesses in the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare.
The agreement was the result of months-long negotiations between the state and Children Rights, which in 1993 filed a class action lawsuit charging that the Milwaukee County child welfare system failed to protect children in foster care.
Air pollution settlement
In 2006 Clean Wisconsin and Sierra Club announced a landmark settlement with Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) to resolve Clean Air Act violations at its J.P. Pulliam coal-fired power plant in Green Bay.
The settlement resolved a federal lawsuit brought by Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin after discovering that air-monitoring reports submitted by WPS to the Department of Natural Resources showed that Pulliam had exceeded legal pollution limits.
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