2023 Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations › Chapter 102 - Worker's compensation. › 102.83 - Collection of uninsured employer payments.

102.83
Collection of uninsured employer payments.
(1)
(a)
1.
If an uninsured employer or any individual who is found personally liable under sub. (8) fails to pay to the department any amount owed to the department under s. 102.82 and no proceeding for review is pending, the department or any authorized representative may issue a warrant directed to the clerk of circuit court for any county of the state.
2.
The clerk of circuit court shall enter in the judgment and lien docket the name of the uninsured employer or the individual mentioned in the warrant and the amount of the payments, interest, costs, and other fees for which the warrant is issued and the date when the warrant is entered.
3.
A warrant entered under subd. 2. shall be considered in all respects as a final judgment constituting a perfected lien on the right, title, and interest of the uninsured employer or the individual in all of that person's real and personal property located in the county where the warrant is entered. The lien is effective when the department issues the warrant under subd. 1. and shall continue until the amount owed, including interest, costs, and other fees to the date of payment, is paid.
4.
After the warrant is entered in the judgment and lien docket, the department or any authorized representative may file an execution with the clerk of circuit court for filing by the clerk of circuit court with the sheriff of any county where real or personal property of the uninsured employer or the individual is found, commanding the sheriff to levy upon and sell sufficient real and personal property of the uninsured employer or the individual to pay the amount stated in the warrant in the same manner as upon an execution against property issued upon the judgment of a court of record, and to return the warrant to the department and pay to it the money collected by virtue of the warrant within 60 days after receipt of the warrant.
(b)
The clerk of circuit court shall accept and enter the warrant in the judgment and lien docket without prepayment of any fee, but the clerk of circuit court shall submit a statement of the proper fee semiannually to the department covering the periods from January 1 to June 30 and July 1 to December 31 unless a different billing period is agreed to between the clerk and the department. The fees shall then be paid by the department, but the fees provided by s. 814.61 (5) for entering the warrants shall be added to the amount of the warrant and collected from the uninsured employer or the individual when satisfaction or release is presented for entry.
(2)
The department may issue a warrant of like terms, force, and effect to any employee or other agent of the department, who may file a copy of the warrant with the clerk of circuit court of any county in the state, and thereupon the clerk of circuit court shall enter the warrant in the judgment and lien docket and the warrant shall become a lien in the same manner, and with the same force and effect, as provided in sub. (1). In the execution of the warrant, the employee or other agent shall have all the powers conferred by law upon a sheriff, but may not collect from the uninsured employer or the individual any fee or charge for the execution of the warrant in excess of the actual expenses paid in the performance of his or her duty.
(3)
If a warrant is returned not satisfied in full, the department shall have the same remedies to enforce the amount due for payments, interest, costs, and other fees as if the department had recovered judgment against the uninsured employer or the individual and an execution had been returned wholly or partially not satisfied.
(4)
When the payments, interest, costs, and other fees specified in a warrant have been paid to the department, the department shall issue a satisfaction of the warrant and file it with the clerk of circuit court. The clerk of circuit court shall immediately enter the satisfaction of the judgment in the judgment and lien docket. The department shall send a copy of the satisfaction to the uninsured employer or the individual.
(5)
The department, if it finds that the interests of the state will not be jeopardized, and upon such conditions as it may exact, may issue a release of any warrant with respect to any real or personal property upon which the warrant is a lien or cloud upon title. The clerk of circuit court shall enter the release upon presentation of the release to the clerk and payment of the fee for filing the release and the release shall be conclusive proof that the lien or cloud upon the title of the property covered by the release is extinguished.
(6)
At any time after the filing of a warrant, the department may commence and maintain a garnishee action as provided by ch. 812 or may use the remedy of attachment as provided by ch. 811 for actions to enforce a judgment. The place of trial of an action under ch. 811 or 812 may be either in Dane County or the county where the debtor resides and may not be changed from the county in which the action is commenced, except upon consent of the parties.
(7)
If the department issues an erroneous warrant, the department shall issue a notice of withdrawal of the warrant to the clerk of circuit court for the county in which the warrant is filed. The clerk shall void the warrant and any liens attached by it.
(8)
Any officer or director of an uninsured employer that is a corporation and any member or manager of an uninsured employer that is a limited liability company may be found individually and jointly and severally liable for the payments, interest, costs and other fees specified in a warrant under this section if after proper proceedings for the collection of those amounts from the corporation or limited liability company, as provided in this section, the corporation or limited liability company is unable to pay those amounts to the department. The personal liability of the officers and directors of a corporation or of the members and managers of a limited liability company as provided in this subsection is an independent obligation, survives dissolution, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, assignment for the benefit of creditors, judicially confirmed extension or composition, or any analogous situation of the corporation or limited liability company, and shall be set forth in a determination or decision issued under s. 102.82.
History:  1993 a. 81; 1995 a. 117, 224; 1997 a. 35, 38; 2007 a. 185.