Wisconsin Code § 344.01

Words and phrases defined
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(1) Words and
phrases defined in ss. 340.01 and 343.01 are used in the same
sense in this chapter unless a different definition is specifically
provided.
(2) In this chapter the following words and phrases have the
designated meanings:
(a) “Judgment” means a judgment for damages rendered by a
court of competent jurisdiction of any state or of the United
States upon a cause of action arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of any motor vehicle, including damages for care
and for loss of services because of bodily injury to or death of any
person and damages because of injury to or destruction of property and the consequent loss of use thereof, which judgment has
become final by expiration without appeal of the time within
which an appeal might have been taken or by final affirmation on
appeal. “Judgment” also includes a judgment rendered by a court
of competent jurisdiction upon a cause of action on an agreement
of settlement for damages of the type specified in this paragraph,
which judgment has become final within the meaning of this
paragraph.
(b) “Motor vehicle” means a self-propelled vehicle and also
includes trailers and semitrailers designed for use with such vehicles, except that “motor vehicle” does not include farm tractors,
well drillers, road machinery or snowmobiles.
(c) “Operator” means a person who is in actual or constructive physical control of a motor vehicle. It includes a person who
has parked a motor vehicle. It includes the driver of a vehicle being pushed or towed and, in case there is no person actually doing
the driving, the person who is doing the pushing or towing.
(cm) Notwithstanding s. 340.01 (42), “owner” means, with
respect to a vehicle that is registered, or is required to be registered, by a lessee of the vehicle under ch. 341, the lessee of the
vehicle.
(d) “Proof of financial responsibility” or “proof of financial
responsibility for the future” means proof of ability to respond in
damages for liability on account of accidents occurring subsequent to the effective date of such proof, arising out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle in the amount of $25,000 because
of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident and,
subject to that limit for one person, in the amount of $50,000 because of bodily injury to or death of 2 or more persons in any one
accident and in the amount of $10,000 because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any one accident.
(e) “Registration” means, in the case of a person whose vehicle is registered under ch. 341, the registration so issued; in the
case of a person whose vehicle is not so registered, it means the
privilege to register a vehicle in Wisconsin and the reciprocal

privilege granted a nonresident to operate in Wisconsin a vehicle
not registered in Wisconsin.
(f) “State” means any state, territory or possession of the
United States, the District of Columbia, or any province of the
Dominion of Canada.
(g) “Vehicle” means every device in, upon, or by which any
person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, except vehicles used exclusively upon stationary rails or
tracks and except electric scooters, electric personal assistive mobility devices, and personal delivery devices.

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