Wisconsin Senate Bill SB917

Wisconsin 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/27/26
• Refer: 1/27/26
• Failed: 3/23/26

Caption

An Act to amend 767.235 (1) (b) 4. L. of the statutes; Relating to: an optional final hearing by affidavit for the dissolution of a marriage (suggested as remedial legislation by the Office of the Director of State Courts).

Summary

SB917 is a narrow technical bill that corrects and updates cross-references in Wisconsin’s divorce and legal-separation statute governing an optional “final hearing by affidavit.” That procedure, created by 2025 Wisconsin Act 40, allows a court to enter a judgment without a final in-person hearing when both parties submit signed affidavits meeting specified requirements. One of those requirements is that the affidavit disclose whether the parties have been involved in any pending or completed cases involving interspousal battery or domestic abuse. The bill does not create a new divorce process or change the substantive eligibility rules for using the affidavit procedure. Instead, it amends s. 767.235(1)(b)4. to insert the correct cross-reference for “domestic abuse” and to update references to battery-related statutes that were recodified by 2025 Wisconsin Act 24. The practical effect is to keep the affidavit requirement aligned with current statutory definitions and numbering, reducing the risk of confusion or drafting errors in family court proceedings.

Impact

SB917 would make a limited but important conforming change to Wisconsin family law by updating statutory citations in the affidavit-based divorce and legal-separation process. It affects s. 767.235 and related cross-references to domestic abuse and battery statutes, including petitions and criminal cases under the cited protective-order and criminal provisions, as well as their substantial equivalents in state, tribal, or federal court. The bill is remedial legislation requested by the Office of the Director of State Courts and is intended to preserve the operation of Act 40’s new procedure after the recodification of battery laws in Act 24.

Sentiment

The available context suggests generally favorable or at least noncontroversial sentiment. The bill was introduced by the Law Revision Committee as remedial legislation, and the prefatory note states that the committee viewed the changes as minor substantive changes that are desirable as a matter of public policy. There is no recorded committee debate or vote history in the provided materials, and the bill’s purpose is framed as a technical cleanup rather than a policy dispute. Despite that, the bill ultimately failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1.

Contention

There is little evidence of substantive contention in the provided record, because the bill is a technical correction rather than a policy overhaul. The main issue addressed is drafting accuracy: ensuring the affidavit requirement in divorce and legal-separation cases refers to the correct domestic abuse definition and the updated battery statutes after recodification. Any concern would likely be limited to whether the affidavit process is being implemented correctly and whether the cross-references are precise enough for courts and litigants, rather than disagreement over the underlying final-hearing-by-affidavit procedure itself.