To answer the question of whether obesity is a disability, we need to start with a definition of obesity. Let’s say a “body mass index” (BMI) in excess of 40. This is a simple objective measure and BMI > 40 represents an extreme definition of “obesity,” with which few people would disagree. To answer the […]
Update (April 13, 2016): In a 3-2 decision in the case of Pfeil v. St. Mathew, the Minnesota Supreme Court, by affirming the dismissal of parishioners’ claims, appears to have declared open season in Minnesota for reckless, harmful, defamatory statements made in “formal church discipline proceedings.” As dissenter Justice Lillehaug warned (joined in dissent by Chief Judge Gildea), […]
In October, 2014, Tom Johnson, a Minnesota Vikings football player (6′ 3″, 285 lbs.), went to “Seven,” an upscale bar on Hennepin Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis, at about 1:00 a.m., where he hung out with friends till closing, around 2:30 a.m. Believe it or not, when he went to leave and get his car from the […]
Update (April 9, 2016): The case, described below, settled, finally, this past week after Sr. U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment for reasons stated on the record (transcript here). The heart of the matter: Once [Defendant] Archibald learned that [Plaintiff] Lakeshirts had not been paid [for the T-Shirts […]
Putting aside the rare Chernobyl or Fukushima scenarios (or the more common and only slightly less horrifying Superfund scenarios), you can’t lose with real estate investments, right? You buy land and it ALWAYS has value. How can you lose? To an inexperienced investor, real estate might seem like a high-stakes game of “hot potato.” You […]
Update: All appellate filings must be filed electronically effective July 1, 2016. Paper copies of briefs must also be filed. The number of paper briefs to be filed is set by standing orders issued by the Courts. The number of paper copies of briefs filed in the Minnesota Supreme Court has now been reduced. […]
Charles Dickens wrote Bleak House, a novel satirizing the British legal system, portraying an endless lawsuit over contested wills, Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Many lawsuits that I follow are real-life bleak houses. They include characters. And by that, I mean characters (as in, “You’ve never met Mary’s husband? He’s a character….”). (If you don’t know what I mean, then […]
Update (April 6, 2016): This post is a correction of sorts of the original post, below. It turns out that the premise of the story below — that Republican Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt may have been given a lawyer’s services for free or for less than the lawyer’s normal rate to help him with his debt […]
For an ex-lawyer/writer, Seth’s recent out-cry for content presents too tempting an offer. In the 1990’s I was a commercial real estate lawyer in Manhattan. A small, aggressive hotel acquisition/management company called Starwood Lodging was a client of the firm and Mario Cuomo occupied a corner office. “Junior Attorney” comes from that strange and stressful […]
If Donald Trump is elected, if he declares martial law, and if his hand-picked advisers elect him as Supreme Commander, we might finally have someone in power who can,with the swipe of pen (or scimitar), get things done. Until then, it seems we might be sentenced to gridlock for life with our politicians who while away the hours “deliberating,” […]