U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis heard argument today on cross-motions for summary judgment in a case brought by Sierra Club Northstar Chapter in regard to a bridge over the St. Croix River. Cross motions for summary judgment had been pending since late May. The Sierra Club, represented by the Environmental Law & Policy Center, […]
The New York Times, today, covers lawyers getting into hot water by virtue of their “on-line” personae vs. their professional rules and responsibilities (link here). This is just one aspect of the new dimension in modern life — social media — aspects of which have already been covered here.
There have been two recent rulings on local patent infringement trials, past and, by all indications, imminent, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Move over, United States District Court, E.D. Texas (Marshall Division), once thought of as “ground zero” for U.S. patent infringement litigation? (Don’t bet on it.) Even if the […]
The United States Court of Appeals ruled today in the Williams case, discussed here previously. The lower court’s ruling has been affirmed “in all respects.”
Judge James M. Rosenbaum is known to occasionally wield the pen as a sword (or, in Minnesotan spirit and consistent with his metaphor of attorneys as remoras, as a fish gutting knife?). Judge Rosenbaum’s recent response to a request for attorneys’ fees in the UHG class action litigation cut deeply. He denied the request for […]
With this brief entry, the Minnesota Litigator slips across the statelines and into a development in South Dakota criminal law… This past week the South Dakota Supreme Court held that evidence had to be suppressed (evidence, it seems, of some 10 lbs. of marijuana) because the South Dakota police officer released his drug-sniffing dog on […]
I have never felt the need to name my meat before eating it; I don’t know anyone, in fact, who makes a habit of it, but, for some reason, McDonald’s new ad campaign seems to hint at this strange act. McDonald’s odd, “Who’s your patty?” ad campaign apparently derives from “Who’s your daddy?” (or an […]
With the internet has come an ever-growing wave of anonymous wrong-doing so businesses and individuals increasingly have to vindicate their rights by bringing a lawsuit against a fictitious entity and then, once the suit is filed, the victims can invoke the court’s subpoena power to discover the name(s) of the wrong-doers (with subpoenas to internet […]
The Eighth Circuit revived a plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim that the U.S. District Court, D. Minn. (Kyle, J.) had thrown out. Plaintiffs first brought suit against American Building Maintenance Inc. (ABMI), the parent company of their employer, American Building Maintenance of Kentucky (ABMK), which they added more than 90 days later. They made claims […]
Life Time used a compensation plan whereby it gave a year-end bonus depending on performance of certain business units. Bonuses were issued quarterly through the year based on then-current financial performance but the company reserved the right to deduct from pay to the extent total year performance did not meet bonus criteria. (For biblical precedent, […]