Wisconsin Statutes
Wis. Stat. § 885.12 (2026)
Coercing witnesses before officers and boards
✓ current as of July 2026
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885.12885.12 Coercing witnesses before officers and boards. If any person, without reasonable excuse, fails to attend as a witness, or to testify as lawfully required before any arbitrator, coroner, medical examiner, board, commission, commissioner, examiner, committee, or other officer or person authorized to take testimony, or to produce a book or paper which the person was lawfully directed to bring, or to subscribe the person’s deposition when correctly reduced to writing, any judge of a court of record or a circuit court commissioner in the county where the person was obliged to attend may, upon sworn proof of the facts, issue an attachment for the person, and unless the person shall purge the contempt and go and testify or do such other act as required by law, may commit the person to close confinement in the county jail until the person shall so testify or do such act, or be discharged according to law. The sheriff of the county shall execute the commitment.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2
cases, 1972–2019 · leading case: State v. Balistrieri, 201 N.W.2d 18 (Wis. 1972).
State v. Balistrieri, 201 N.W.2d 18 (Wis. 1972). “Sec. 885.12, Stats., provides that the failure to attend as a witness before a board, commissioner, examiner, etc.”
Don Johnson's Haywood Motors, Inc. v. Gen. Motors LLC, 387 F. Supp. 3d 939 (W.D. Wis. 2019). “See Wis. Stat. § 885.12 . Similarly, hearing examiners cannot conduct a jury trial, nor can they enter an injunction or award damages.”
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