Here is one of my favorite things (TAAFOMFT): a client wins a case on two separate grounds and the adversary appeals both grounds. The Court of Appeals remands the case as to one of the two grounds and refuses to consider the other ground, which, by itself, might dispose of the case. To do otherwise, […]
Phagocytosis is the process by which certain single-celled organisms, like the amoeba, devour food. They essentially ooze around their “prey” and they merge with it. Companies grow the same way, more or less, but they have a variety of ingestion options: merger, acquisition, asset purchase, and more complicated versions of these basic ideas. When a company […]
After all I do for you, you can do a little something for me, no? Minnesota Litigator was an “ABA Top 100 Law Blawg” back in 2011 but those heady days are over. Since then, Minnesota Litigator has been in drought conditions in terms of ABA love. Nominate Minnesota Litigator. Now. If you rely on […]
An important win for Minnesota plaintiffs and their lawyers. The Minnesota Supreme Court today rejected the heightened pleading standard that the U.S. Supreme Court has imposed on plaintiffs in federal courts in recent years (the so-called “Iqbal/Twombly standard”). The federal heightened pleading standard has made it more difficult for plaintiffs to withstand motions to dismiss in federal […]
Back in March, a Hennepin County jury awarded Alan Klapmeier a verdict of $10,000,000.00 in a lawsuit that Klapmeier brought against Cirrus Industries, Inc., the company that Alan Klapmeier co-founded with his brother, Dale Klapmeier. Alan Klapmeier has since moved on and he is now President and CEO of Kestrel Aircraft. The lawsuit involved an alleged […]
Minnesota Litigator’s focus is on state and federal civil litigation in the state of Minnesota but, from time to time, I go on a walk-about to neighboring jurisdictions or I indulge myself in random navel-gazing. This is another one of those times. Check out the attached thorough and extremely well-reasoned decision from the United States District […]
It’s a midsummer Monday morning so, on the lighter side, as you try to take your mind off the lake up North or wherever your summer getaway is, ponder this pointless question to get yourself back into workplace mode: in captions in civil complaints in Minnesota, do you like borders all around, borders top and bottom, borders […]
Update (July 31, 2014): It seems that Carlson, Inc. made a small fortune by starting with a larger fortune, then spending years fighting with and blaming IBM for problems in an attempt to wiggle out of Carlson’s own contractual obligations to IBM (that is, paying a steep early termination fee for their multi-year project). At least, this […]
Steve Wells went before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit this past week in fighting for Bruce Webster, who appears to have been mentally retarded when he committed the crime for which he was convicted. Nevertheless, he sits on death row. This is not supposed to happen in the United States of America. (See, […]
This question might sound easy to some readers but it is, in fact, extremely difficult. As discussed below, there are significant problems with relying on reputation. There are even problems with relying on a lawyer’s “track record.” The best answer is for consumers of legal services to shop around, talk to more than one lawyer and […]