Wis. Stat. § 23.50

This is the official text of Wis. Stat. § 23.50, part of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Statutes — the complete compiled statutory law of Wisconsin, organized into numbered chapters by subject.

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Procedure in forfeiture actions.

Official statutory text

(1) The procedure in ss. 23.50 to 23.85 applies to all actions in circuit court to recover forfeitures, plus costs, fees, and surcharges imposed under ch. 814 , for violations of ss. 77.09 , 90.21 , 134.60 , 167.10 (3) , 167.31 (2) , 281.48 (2) to (5) , 283.33 , 285.57 (2) , 285.59 (2) , (3) (c) and (4) , 287.07 , 287.08 , 287.81 , and 299.64 (2) , subch. VI of ch. 77 , this chapter, and chs. 26 to 31 , ch. 169 , and ch. 350 , and any administrative rules promulgated thereunder, violations specified under s. 280.98 (2) or 285.86 , violations of s. 281.36 if the department chooses to proceed under s. 281.36 (14) (f) , violations of ch. 951 if the animal involved is a captive wild animal, violations of rules of the Kickapoo reserve management board under s. 41.41 (7) (k) , violations to which s. 299.85 (7) (a) 2. or 4. applies, or violations of local ordinances enacted by any local authority in accordance with s. 23.33 (11) (am) , 23.335 (21) (a) , or 30.77 .

(2) All actions to recover these forfeitures and costs, fees, and surcharges imposed under ch. 814 are civil actions in the name of the state of Wisconsin, shall be heard in the circuit court for the county where the offense occurred, and shall be recovered under the procedure set forth in ss. 23.50 to 23.85 .

(3) All actions in municipal court to recover forfeitures, plus costs, fees, and surcharges imposed under ch. 814 , for violations of local ordinances enacted by any local authority in accordance with s. 23.33 (11) (am) , 23.335 (21) (a) , or 30.77 shall utilize the procedure in ch. 800 . The actions shall be brought before the municipal court having jurisdiction. Provisions relating to citations, arrests, questioning, releases, searches, deposits, and stipulations of no contest in ss. 23.51 (1m) , (3) , and (8) , 23.53 , 23.54 , 23.56 to 23.64 , 23.66 , and 23.67 shall apply to violations of such ordinances.

(4) Where a fine or imprisonment, or both, is imposed by a statute enumerated in sub. (1) , the procedure in ch. 968 shall apply.

History: 1975 c. 365 ; 1977 c. 29 , 305 ; 1977 c. 449 ss. 44 , 497 ; 1979 c. 32 s. 92 (17) ; 1979 c. 34 ss. 703b , 2102 (39) (f) ; 1981 c. 390 ; 1985 a. 36 ; 1987 a. 27 ; 1987 a. 200 s. 4 ; 1989 a. 79 , 284 , 335 , 359 ; 1991 a. 39 , 97 ; 1993 a. 16 , 243 , 344 , 349 , 491 ; 1995 a. 27 , 216 , 227 , 290 ; 1997 a. 35 ; 1999 a. 9 ; 2001 a. 56 ; 2003 a. 139 , 276 ; 2005 a. 360 ; 2013 a. 69 ; 2015 a. 170 .

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.