Update (September 29, 2015): Linked is U.S. District Court Judge Ericksen’s pretrial order in the St. Jude v. Grubiak lawsuit, discussed below. A couple of things are notable: (1) Motions in limine are due right before Thanksgiving and responses to motions in limine are due right after. In light of the litigation styles on both sides […]

A pyrrhic victory is simply a victory in which the costs of the war exceed the spoils of the war. To use a term that was popular in the subprime mortgage lending meltdown, in a pyrrhic victory, the winner ends up “upside down” (having paid lawyers as much or more than the plaintiff recovered). This […]

Minnesota Litigator has interviewed and featured lesser known Minnesota civil litigators for years — experienced litigators whose expertise is narrow and deep so they tend not to be widely known in the community. This profile deviates from that practice. In my view, Mr. Lewis “Lew” Remele’s reputation and accomplishments in Minnesota civil litigation for decades have been […]

The Minneapolis-based law firm, Dorsey & Whitney, issued a press release yesterday about the firm’s website redesign. It’s a dramatic change from its quite static and staid predecessor. Full of animated page transitions and lush photos over black backgrounds. Query to readers: should I insert “polling software” into Minnesota Litigator and survey readers on various Minnesota law […]

This is the seventh anniversary of Minnesota Litigator. The first post was in 2008. Thank you Minnesota Litigator readers. Please keep the tips and comments coming! We have amazing things in store in the coming days but Minnesota Litigator desperately needs your help to keep catching fresh news, to filet the news while still fresh, […]

As a junior associate at Big Law some years ago, I coined a term for certain unfulfilling (in fact, excruciating) assignments. I called them “The-Earth-is-Flat Memos.” I used this expression to describe assignments I would get where the outcome of the case was not good for our client and I would be assigned to find favorable legal […]

Edina, Minnesota resident Jeffrey Alan Petersen advertised to potential investors on Craigslist and then simply stole the “investors’” money. The Star Tribune recently reported: Petersen was arrested in October 2013 after an undercover agent answered one of his ads online, then went to his home posing as a potential investor. After his release a few weeks […]

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) Arbitrators in Arizona concluded after a 10-day trial that Fintegra Financial Solutions owe a group of unhappy investors in April 2015 and awarded the investors $1,537,626 on June 10, 2015 (see the award as an attachment to the linked complaint). That’s when Fintegra turned out its pockets and said it […]

Apparently it’s the lien time of year with back-to-back posts about attorneys’ liens in Minnesota. Christensen Law Office, PLLC v. Olean is a classic scenario. Debtor/Client hires Law Firm to fight several (3) law suits arising out of his default on promissory notes and… guess what? The Debtor/Client did not differentiate between not paying the underlying […]

Update (September 10, 2015): My criticisms of extreme sanctions by the U.S. District Court for a lawyer’s deposition misconduct, below, were validated and shared by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the district court sanctions were reversed. Original post, October 10, 2014 (under headline:”Something is rotten…right here in the United States…” (or maybe […]