“Birds of a feather flock together” and “a man is known by the company he keeps” might be the kinds of facile heuristics (or “mental shortcuts”) that misinform more often than they inform. There may be no better illustration than this than lawyers. How could it possibly be fair to taint lawyers with their clients’ actions? […]
There are frustrations in the lives of civil litigators. I suppose it is a little like golf where you’re inches from the cup, your prickly golfing buddie won’t give you the “gimme,” you putt and you miss…(Your fault for golfing with a putz. Just saying.) How about seeking a default judgment against an unrepresented litigant […]
The expression in the photo accompanying this post will undoubtedly trigger a perceptual response — some recognition of one kind or another, among readers. It will be perceived as a face by almost everyone. I would suggest that it will be perceived as the face of a young white woman by a large majority of […]
If you are one of the fortunate ones, the accompanying photo shows the doors that you get to go through when entering the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility on South 4th Ave., in downtown Minneapolis. For those less fortunate, entry (in handcuffs) is through an extremely secure underground garage. I was honored to be invited […]
Update (November 4, 2014): The case described below was recently settled apparently with the help of U.S. Mag. Judge Jeffrey J. Keyes (D. Minn.) at a settlement conference and the case is dismissed. Update (April 16, 2014): Greenspring Media, the owners of Minnesota Monthly, tried and failed to stop a former employee, Thomas Gavaras, from working […]
Midterm elections suffer from poor voter turn-out and U.S. citizens suffer from the election of politicians who do not represent their interests because the majority of eligible voters do not vote. With all due respect for Russell Brand, a British comedian and social activist who urges people not to vote because, in his view, the […]
Do not complain about lawyers as greedy, selfish, lazy, and dishonest and, at the same time, walk away from an appeal to help root out the bad lawyers. We need you. The 4th District Ethics Committee is seeking volunteers to investigate local complaints of attorney misconduct. The committee is specifically seeking non-attorney candidates at this […]
Lawyers from one of the most prestigious law firms on earth (Jones Day (Chicago office)) get a run in their silk stockings by pleading that an L.L.C. is “incorporated in Delaware.” It has been a little while since Minnesota Litigator has highlighted this unfortunately frequent glitch so here we go again.
What makes civil litigation expensive? Well, one thing that makes fighting expensive is fighting about where you are going to fight. Best Buy promised employees of MindSHIFT something of value if the MindSHIFT employees stuck around for three years after Best Buy bought MindSHIFT. But, within the three years, Best Buy decided to dump MindSHIFT […]
As the song goes: You’ve got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative And latch on to the affirmative Don’t mess with Mister In-Between When it comes to judicial elections, keeping politics out is accentuating the positive. That helps assure that the best candidates – most likely to really make decisions based on the merits […]