WERC assigns case numbers to a case once the fee (if any) and documents necessary to open the case have been received by WERC at its Madison office. The case numbers assigned are then used to identify the case in subsequent correspondence with the parties and in case-status reporting and tracking within the agency.

The docketing system in use by WERC for many years identifies each case by the name of the employer involved (or by the name of the respondent involved in a case involving no employer); followed by the employer case number, the agency history number, the case type and the agency type number.

Example: City of Milwaukee (blue collar), Case 123, No. 54321, MP-1234. In that example, the employer involved is the City of Milwaukee. The information in the parenthetical , if any, following the employer name specifies which bargaining unit or subdivision of City government is involved; that information is provided for convenience but its presence or absence would not affect the numbering of the case. The reference to "Case 123" means that this is the one hundred twenty-third case of any kind filed with WERC involving the employer, City of Milwaukee and any of its departments and bargaining units. The reference to "No. 54321" means that this is the fifty four thousand three hundred and twenty first case of any kind opened by WERC since the inception of its docket system. The "MP" designation means that this is a municipal sector complaint case, and the "1234" means that this is the one thousand two hundred thirty fourth case of that type filed with WERC. Other commonly utilized case types are listed in the table below:

Commonly Utilized Case Type Abbreviations by Case Type and Sector

Requests for lists of grievance arbitrators not employed by WERC are given a tracking number as follows: 1998 A/P 234. The "A/P stands for arbitrator panel, and the numbers indicate the year in which the requested list was issued and the sequential number of panels issued in the calendar year to date.

When the initial decision or other formal order is issued in a statutory case (complaint, representation, declaratory ruling, etc.), by the WERC or one of its hearing examiners, an additional number is assigned to that case called a decision number. For example, if the WERC issued an order appointing a member of its staff as hearing examiner in the City of Milwaukee complaint case described above, then the caption of that case might include the following case numbers:

City of Milwaukee (blue collar)

Case 123, No. 54321, MP-1234

Dec. No. 12345

The next two formal decisions or order in that case would bear a decision number of 12345-A and 12345-B, respectively, and subsequent decisions and orders would be similarly incrementally lettered. Court decisions and orders related to the case will be filed and indexed for WERC docketing purposes using the next incremental letter, etc. Historically, when representation cases involving a particular bargaining unit were reopened upon the filing, e.g., of a unit clarification or decertification election petition, a new history and case-type number was assigned with the old employer Case number retained and the old decision number used with incremental letters for each decision or order issued in the reopened case, beginning with the last-previously used letter for that decision number. Beginning September 1, 1998, reopened representation files will use all of the previous docket numbers, with incremental lettering on the old decision number

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This page is a public domain communication of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. The URL of this page is {http://werc.wi.gov/case_numbering_system.htm}. Last modified on 9 AUG 1998. Comments, questions and suggestions.