For quite a few years, trial courts’ consideration of whether or not to certify a class of certain kinds of putative class action claims (securites fraud, consumer class actions, certain employment class actions, environmental cases, mass accidents) have been perfunctory, at best. Many plaintiffs in such cases have intoned the requirements of Rule 23 of […]
This should be end of a saga in which one former New York/Dorsey & Whitney partner’s serious ethical lapses bled over onto other New York/Dorsey lawyers and the firm itself, but the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the sanctions against the firm and the remaining Dorsey lawyers, squarely focusing blame and responsibility on the now-departed […]
In an unpublished Minnesota Court of Appeals decision, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed a complete victory for defendant/debt collector/law firm Messerli & Kramer P.A. in a case brought by the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis and a sister case by Lori Swanson, Minnesota’s Attorney General. Messerli & Kramer had sought and been awarded default […]
Some lawyers and clients over-focus on the liability aspect of cases and they short-change the damages side. Almost all civil litigation is about money — it’s ultimately about the damages — but liability — “who’s at fault?” — is more graspable and sometimes it is the better handled part of litigation. In U.S. Salt, Inc. […]
All defendants reasonably want to know the degree of exposure they face in litigation. Particularly early on in a lawsuit, before discovery, trying to assess the likelihood of punitive damages can be a hard call for some cases and predicting the amount of punitive damages may be extremely difficult if not impossible with any satisfactory […]
As the deadline approached on claims to the state fund for the August, 2007 I-35W Bridge collapse victims, a flurry of effort resulted in all victims participating in the state settlement fund. By accepting payments from the Minnesota fund, victims are not barred from pursuing additional compensation from, say, private entities related to bridge and […]
Since at least 2007, some in the the mortgage lending industry have been concerned that the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”), which mandates data reporting regarding loan applications and loan terms, would be used by plaintiffs’ counsel as supposed evidence of racially biased mortgage lending decisions or mortgage lending terms. Yesterday, while not mentioning […]
In a published decision by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the Court reversed a Scott County District Court whose decision had been adverse to an insured defendant in a car accident case. The defendant reported the accident to his insurer and then, apparently, could not be located when the lawsuit was filed. The insurer hired […]
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, FDCPA, can be a harsh and unforgiving statute for debt collectors, setting out fairly exacting standards on acceptable and unacceptable conduct related to debt collection (and providing for fee-shifting). (Some of the FDCPA’s rules are (or should be) nearly self-evident — it is improper to make empty threats, harassing […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit dealt a blow to Ameriprise Financial. Judges Wollman, Beam, and Riley reversed summary judgment that the U.S. District Court (D. Minn.) had entered in Ameriprise’s favor on claims brought by a handful of mutual funds. Under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“ICA”), […]