An advisory committee to the Minnesota Supreme Court has recommended some changes to the Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure. We litigators need to understand two of the proposed changes. One proposed amendment will provide some narrow grounds for rejecting documents for e-filing. For example, pleadings can be rejected if they list the wrong file number […]
Update (March 12, 2015): In original post, below, I set out the story of Jeff Davies’ frustrating loss of a $10 million arbitration award because, the Minnesota Court of Appeals held, he failed to bring the claim within the 90 day period required in his employment agreement. In recent weeks, the Minnesota Supreme Court denied Davies’ […]
Sometimes it is strategically valid to bring a motion when one is not assured of winning the motion. First, there are almost literally never guaranteed wins in litigation, so if “certainty of winning” is a prerequisite for a motion (to dismiss, to compel, for summary judgment, and so on), you’ll never be able to bring […]
Update (March 11, 2015): St. Jude’s win, described below, has been affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The hidden “practice pointer” is that one cannot appeal to the Court of Appeals a discovery order by a Magistrate Judge, if one failed to object to that decision and failed to raise the […]
Congratulations to Matt Morgan and the law firm of Nichols Kaster for a hard-fought jury trial win in the neighboring Western District of Wisconsin last week (Madison, Wisconsin) for his client Mr. Michael Koziara. The jury presumably concluded that the allegations in the complaint were true. The jury heard all the evidence so I think […]
Definitions of Defamation under Minnesota law: (1) Defamatory matter is anything which exposes a person or a group, class or association to hatred, contempt, ridicule, degradation or disgrace in society, or injury to business or occupation. Minn. Stat. § 609.795 (“Criminal Defamation”). (2) In order for a statement to be considered defamatory it must be communicated to someone […]
Pam VanderWiel graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2000 and for several years now has been a partner in a three-lawyer law firm with two offices doing litigation and counseling for public entities in Minnesota (that is, Minnesota towns, cities, agencies, and other public bodies). In speaking with Pam, I was struck by […]
I follow ethics issues for Minnesota lawyers fairly closely because I find it interesting and because I find myself with plaintiff’s side attorney malpractice cases from time to time. I think alcoholism is the single greatest cause of attorney malpractice. Sometimes, it is said, a person has to “hit bottom” before he recognizes he has […]
More or less true anecdote: Two companies spent over $200,000 each on attorneys’ fees and expert fees heading into trial on a narrow patent dispute and the multiple million dollar dispute hinged on the words, “operates via buoyancy.” Each side hired experts who, with the help of top-tier lawyers, tried to walk the jury through […]
The earliest known use of the legal maxim, “Hard cases make bad law,” was in 1842, 173 years ago. Since then, others have been quoted for variants of the maxim: “Bad law makes hard cases,” and even “Hard cases make good law.” This old koan-like utterance flirts with a hint of insight but does it provide any insight of […]