Under Wisconsin Statute Section 971.06, there are two types of pleas that can result in a criminal conviction:

1. Guilty plea: the defendant admits that he or she committed the acts alleged by the prosecution.  Guilty pleas are the most common type of plea in Wisconsin.
2. No Contest plea: the defendant does not admit to the facts alleged by the prosecutor.  However, he or she also does not dispute that a jury could find him or her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt - if the case went to trial.

Put another way, when you enter a plea of guilty, you are admitting that you did the crime.  When you enter a plea of no contest, you are essentially admitting that a jury could find you guilty based on the evidence the State has against you, but you are not going that one extra step and admitting that you actually did it.

The significance of this distinction is that anyone who files a civil lawsuit against you for the same conduct as that in the criminal case, cannot use the conviction in your criminal case as evidence of guilt in the lawsuit.

If the crime to which you are pleading involves a victim with injuries or damaged/stolen property, it is better to enter a no contest plea to prevent your conviction from being used as ammunition against you if you get sued.

A: The Federal Firearm Rescriction prohibits use of firearms by persons convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.  The key word here is "misdemeanor."  A municipal citation or forfeiture/ticket is not a criminal matter, it is a civil in nature.  Therefore, the Federal prohibition does not apply.

A:  Unfortunately, the court will likely find that your claim is procedurally barred.
Two very important legal principle work against you here – finality and waiver.  Generally speaking, “finality” means that if you raised an issue in a previous motion and lost, you cannot raise it again.  “Waiver” means that if failed to raise a particular issue in a previous motion, you cannot raise it again.

Although you did not mention which issues you addressed in your motions, the chances are you will be procedurally barred from raising further issues relating to sentencing because: (1) you raised the same issue in your initial motion but lost on appeal, or (2) you could have but did not raise the issue in your initial motion.  It is incredibly difficult to raise a new issue in a later motion.  To do this, you must show the court a “sufficient reason” for raising it now.  See State v. Escalona-Naranjo, 185 Wis.2d 168, 517 N.W.2d 157 (1994); State v. Lo, 2003 WI 707, 264 Wis.2d 1, 665 N.W.2d 756.  This is not an easy task.  There are few circumstances in which a court has found “sufficient reasons.”  Those include:

• The appellate attorney did not claim ineffective assistance of trial counsel on direct appeal, because the appellate attorney was also the attorney at trial.  See State v. Hensley, 221 Wis.2d 473, 585 N.W.2d 683 (Ct. App. 1998).
• The appellate attorney was ineffective in failing to bring a postconviction motion on direct appeal.  See State ex rel. Rothering v. McCaughtry, 205 Wis.2d 675, 680, 556 N.W.2d 136, 139 (Ct. App. 1996).
• The substantive law has changed, and it could not have been foreseen at the time of your direct appeal.  See State v. Howard, 211 I
  Wis. 2d, 269 564 N.W.2d 753 (1997).

The bottom line is that the doctrine of finality and the waiver rule combined generally mean that you get only one chance to make your arguments.  That is why it is important to raise all important issues in your initial motion.

A:  No.  When a court record is expunged, it is not destroyed or erased.  Rather, the court record is removed from public access and sealed.   It is important to understand that an WI expungement laws apply solely to court records.  Records of arrest, or other incidents of police contact are not affected.