WI · jury_instructions
Wis JI-Civil 2750
Employment Relations: Wrongful Discharge - Public Policy
In Wisconsin, an employer may discharge an employee for good reason, for no reason,
or even for a reason that is morally wrong without committing a legal wrong. An exception
to this rule is [where the termination of the employee’s job violates] [where the employee
is discharged for refusing an employer’s command to do something that would itself
violate] a well-established and important public policy. Public policy in Wisconsin
prohibits the firing of an employee for (insert policy).
(Plaintiff) claims that (he) (she) was fired from (his) (her) job by (defendant) because
(give public policy being violated, e.g., (he) (she) refused to commit perjury). If you find
that (defendant) fired (plaintiff) for that reason, then (plaintiff) was wrongfully discharged.
A discharge is not wrongful merely because it is retaliatory, unreasonable, or
motivated by bad faith or malice. Further, a discharge is not wrongful merely because the
discharged employee’s conduct was praiseworthy or because the public may have derived
some benefit from it.
SPECIAL VERDICT
Was (plaintiff) wrongfully discharged from (his) (her) employment by (defendant)?
ANSWER: ___________
Yes or No
History
Wis JI-Civil 2750 (11/2025). Release No. 59. Wisconsin Court System, 11/2025. Prepared by the Wisconsin Civil Jury Instructions Committee of the Wisconsin Judicial Conference with the University of Wisconsin Law School; posted by the Wisconsin State Law Library with the University's permission.
Provenance
- Source
- wilawlibrary.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-24
- Edition
- 2026-09-24
- Content hash
31803672f2afd94eb6594a93e331becf24d22a310ae5a2c1a62b381d06dc4849
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.