Unsophisticated litigants sometimes imagine they can just pick a number from thin air and claim it as their damages. (See, e.g., here and here (Congressman Nunes’ complaints claiming over $1 billion in defamation damages in two separate lawsuits).) As most civil litigators know (putting aside Congressman Nunes’ lawyers, perhaps), in general, there is considerably more […]
Mr. David Modeen allegedly left his employer PetroChoice last April. He allegedly fibbed about the next stop in his professional life, claiming to take “an executive marketing position with a promotional products company.” Instead, PetroChoice alleges, Mr. Modeen went to a direct competitor of PetroChoice, Como Lube. Moreover, he is alleged to have misappropriated PetroChoice […]
Regular Minnesota Litigator readers will have noticed a drop-off in the frequency of Minnesota Litigator posts since early October. On October 2 at about 5:20 p.m., a man driving a BMW 5 Series southbound on Colfax Ave. South crossed 28th Street without looking both ways. Riding my bike home from work that late afternoon, the […]
When a U.S. federal court throws out all federal claims with prejudice in a case and then dismisses the case (which includes additional claims under state law), can “the prevailing party” bring a motion for award of attorneys’ fees (based on a contract provision) in the federal court that just threw the case out? (“Prevailing […]
Update (November 15, 2019): The case described below was argued before the Minnesota Supreme Court this week. In the underlying district court decision by retired Hennepin County District Court Judge Mel I. Dickstein, it seems clear that Judge Dickstein felt required to rule against the plaintiff by established law and strongly suggested the possibility that […]
Update (November 11, 2019): Linked here is the defendants’ response to the plaintiff’s efforts to obtain documents and testimony withheld from discovery on claims of attorney work product doctrine (discussed below). It is strong advocacy; given our experience of rather broad and deferential treatment of privilege claims, we predict these defenses will win the day. […]
Being a solo civil litigator presents enormous challenges — far too many to list in this post. But one obvious one is document management. In those eighteen letters and two simple words, there can be a horrifying and bottomless abyss for solo (or small firm) lawyers (or even large law firms or corporations). E-discovery poses […]
Computer Forensic Services (“CFS”) had a stinging defeat some years ago in Hennepin County District Court (“CFS v. Afremov”), which other adversaries then sought to exploit in unrelated litigation. CFS vigorously defended the accusations that the court leveled against it in CFS v Afremov, pointing out that the Hennepin County District Court decision against CFS […]
Here is Prof. Adams’ guilty plea (misdemeanor, violation of 26 U.S.C. 7603). Sentencing will be up to Sr. U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank (informed by the sentencing guidelines, of course).
Minnesota lawyers know (or should know) all about Minnesota Rule of Professional Conduct 1.16(e) (“Papers and property to which the client is entitled…”). The rule sets out lawyers’ obligations to give clients’ their files on termination of representation. The ethics rule tries to balance the interests of lawyers and clients as to their respective rights […]