For some time in U.S. politics, a large swath of the electorate concluded that Democrats and Republicans were like Coke and Pepsi, two versions of basically indistinguishable sickeningly sweetened corporate junk food. We hope that the election of Republican Donald J. Trump over Hilary Clinton, his Democratic rival, has put an end to this over-simplified […]
Update (August 13, 2018): We introduced the neologism, “GOOTCH,” about three years ago (see below). Chief Judge John R. Tunheim (D. Minn.) issued what, in our view, was a pretty strong GOOTCH Order last week on behalf of a LEVENTHAL pllc client. Judge Tunheim dropped a few references to Rule 11 (in footnotes 1 and […]
Let us all hope that the linked recent Court of Appeals decision against Rochester City Lines (“RCL”) is the terminus of this excruciating litigation road-trip. RCL seems to have had a pretty sweet deal, a contract to provide bussing with the city of Rochester for 46 years. It is putting it mildly to suggest that […]
Minnesota Litigator has criticized mainstream media (the Star Tribune, mostly) for their often repeated failure to link to complaints when they pull their news stories from complaints filed in courts (but, we also give credit when due, see here). First, they are depriving their readership of a “deeper dive” into the allegations. Second, they rarely identify […]
From time to time, our Minnesota Supreme Court surprises us by taking cases that, in our view, were plainly correctly decided by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. This is the case with Larson v. Gannett Co., et al., a defamation lawsuit brought by Mr. Ryan Larson, who was incorrectly arrested and apparently charged with murder […]
Steve Dupuis was president of a company in Memphis, Tennessee, where he made $600,000/year. He left that job to be the president of GATR Truck Center, near St. Cloud, Minnesota, for $350,000/yr plus deferred and equity compensation that would vest after employment of a set number of years. Mr. Dupuis was obviously willing to take quite […]
LEVENTHAL pllc has enjoyed considerable success in representing clients in arbitrations, but we have also been critical of arbitration as a form of dispute resolution. Arbitration is a money-making endeavor. Subjecting judging to market forces raises serious and obvious risks of contamination of a justice process. For example, if a Fortune 100 company imposes arbitration […]
Some time ago, we pointed out the obvious (at which we are particularly adept, btw): When people get desperate, they sometimes do desperate things. And our research suggests that this is true not only of human beings but also true of lawyers (who are almost indistinguishable from people, btw). One land-mine that lies just inches […]
Update (July 25, 2018): It is relatively rare that we celebrate when we at Minnesota Litigator have made a bad prediction, but, in our view, today the Minnesota Supreme Court got it right, in our view, and disproved our prediction below. The practice pointer below still applies, however, even though the consequences of a lapse might not be […]
Regular Minnesota Litigator readers will recall that we have, from time to time, decried the prevalent practice of the so-called “Minnesota Haircut.” For our n00b readers, the Minnesota Haircut refers to Minnesota state and federal courts’ frequent application of sharp discounts to a prevailing party’s request for award of her lawyers’ attorneys’ fees. Lawyers submit […]