Updated post (June 26, 2015): Hourly billing lawyers generally remember to record the time that they work as they work. Otherwise, they smartly reason, they cannot bill and they cannot get paid. (To my consternation, some hourly billing lawyers actually fail to enter their time diligently. Law firms go nuts if they have these foot-dragging procrastinating […]
Yes. For example, an employer might discriminate against a woman employee by way of “pregnancy discrimination,” which is unlawful, even when the employer does not actually know the employee is pregnant. Thus held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit this month, partially reversing U.S. District Court Judge Joan N. Ericksen’s grant of summary judgment for […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review an 8th Circuit “donning and doffing” case in which the Court may review or refine its 2011 Walmart v. Dukes decision. I have often thought that civil litigation would be a part of our commerce that would be least vulnerable to replacement by machines but I wonder […]
The Star Tribune noted the death of Jan Stuurmans this past Friday. Few who knew Jan Stuurmans will be surprised that there are not very many photos of him on-line. Jan was most definitely from the pre-digital age. (I only knew him to have an “aol.com” email address.) And few will be surprised to hear that […]
All civil litigators know that there is a means under the federal rules of civil procedure (and, to the best of my knowledge, all 50 states) for a civil litigant to depose a corporation, a partnership, an LLC, or any other kind of business organization. In the federal rules, the applicable rule is Rule 30(b)(6) of the […]
The Minnesota Supreme Court recently issued a split decision on the discipline of Duane Kennedy, a Minnesota lawyer, with the majority of the Court finding that Duane Kennedy’s zealous advocacy for his client crossed the ethical boundaries that circumscribed the separate ethical obligations he owed to the legal system. In the abstract, it is not difficult […]
We rarely stop to think about it but legal opinions are a unique literary form. They are non-fiction narratives. There is generally a common structure, “Here are the facts. Here is the law. Here is how we believe the laws apply to these facts.” Legal opinions are very often insanely boring and inaccessible to most […]
I thought I was up-to-speed on the new appellate e-filing requirements. I had read the materials online, passed the little quiz you need to take with flying colors, and registered. So I knew all the basics. But I went to the training session offered by the courts and learned some new things. A […]
Regular readers of Minnesota Litigator and all experienced civil trial lawyers know about the pleading rules for “diversity citizenship” for LLCs, partnerships, and associations. (Earlier posts here…) Except sometimes, it seems that experienced civil trial lawyers don’t. Even when the issue has been “flagged” for them by the federal trial court. How many bites at the […]
I am not in favor of corporal punishment of people, whether children or adults. Having said that, we all understand the idea. Inflict physical pain to deter intentional misconduct. Create an association between the intentional misconduct and some painful experience. This is how sanctions against lawyers are supposed to work, of course. But many judges in Minnesota, […]