In March 2011, a fire of unknown origin destroyed a house located at 724 Margaret Street in Chatfield, Minnesota. Appellants Allison Stoehr and her father, Michael O’Byrne, were the named insureds on Spring Valley Mutual Insurance Company’s home insurance policy covering the house. Bradley Kullot, a claims adjuster for Spring Valley testified about his history with O’Byrne. Kullot stated […]

Updated post (July 8, 2015): In the case described below, the Minnesota Supreme Court recently held that Plaintiff Webb did, in fact, have standing to bring the lawsuit that it brought affirming the district court and the Court of Appeals. (Hurray for Webb!) The Minnesota Supreme Court went on to hold that Webb’s failure to […]

Minnesota lawyers: take out a sample of some of your recent legal writing (a brief, a contract, correspondence). Does it sing? Is it lyrical? Does it reflect your hard-earned erudition, your wit, your passion, and your personality? If so, you might have a problem. I recently had the immense pleasure of interviewing a Minnesota litigator and poet, […]

Michael Gordon was a Fair Isaac executive who left Fair Isaac to become C.E.O. of a direct competitor in England. Fair Isaac sued Mr. Gordon and his new company, Callcredit Information Group, Ltd., which is located in England. Mr. Gordon had signed Fair Isaac’s non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreements to protect Fair Isaac’s confidential and proprietary […]

Years ago, in the dead of winter, I toured a wood panel manufacturing facility in Grand Rapids, Minnesota (up North). The lumber yard representative and I had to get into our cars to visit a distant part of the facility (a 15 minute walk in the dead of winter is distant) and, when he saw me […]

I recently posted on how courts discipline (or fail to discipline) lawyers. Tangentially, I am also particularly interested in the impact of “data darwinism,” reputation in the digital age and its implications on professional discipline. A court might sanction a lawyer $X,000 dollars for perceived wrong-doing but maybe a “benchslap,” that is, harsh words in a publicly available legal […]

This is the message I got today when I went to look up information about a Hennepin County Judge on the official government website. What’s that about?

If a business figured out a way to swipe $0.01 from you once a week, how long would it take before you decided it was worth your time and money to sue that business? If you are like most people, you will decide that it simply is not worth your time trying to go after someone […]

Update (June 29,2015):   A new handbook will help e-filers in the Minnesota district courts.  The handbook is published by the Minnesota Judicial Branch and is found on the courts website. The handbook provides some general background on e-filing procedures. Section 7 of the handbook, though, is made mandatory for e-filers.  The requirements in Section […]

Update (June 29, 2015): Earlier this month the Minnesota Supreme Court granted the Defendants’ petition for further review of the Court of Appeals decision, described below. The Court of Appeals in the Jaeger case affirmed a district court ruling after trial that a defendant in a foreclosure proceeding was never properly “served” “process” (that is, he did […]