[Editor’s Note: Minnesota Litigator is delighted and honored to pass on the post, below, by retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis D. O’Brien, below. I add, though, that I think Judge O’Brien “buried the lede,” as journalists say (or “the lead,” if you prefer), by leaving until the end Judge O’Brien’s news that he offers services to […]
Earlier this month, the Minnesota Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of review of a Court of Appeals decision (and trial court decision) that went against a payday lender, Integrity Advance LLC (“Integrity”). From the Court of Appeals decision: Integrity does not have a license to operate as a lender in Minnesota…Integrity denied making […]
Both plaintiffs’ lawyers signed an obviously time-barred copyright infringement complaint in violation of Rule 11, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (D. Minn.) found. It seems that they were only spared from punishment by virtue of the fact that their adversaries failed to step through the procedural hoops necessary to unleash the Court’s wrath. So now […]
Update (June 26, 2014): The Minnesota “anti-SLAPP statute” is a thorny and confusing statute. I will try to distill the crux of this week’s Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision about it into “plain English:” If a plaintiff sues a defendant, alleging that a defendant’s lawsuit against the plaintiff (or defendant’s other “participation in government,” such as taking positions at public hearings, before […]
Update (June 25, 2014): I am not very surprised that this unsavory chapter was quietly dismissed earlier this month with the defendants’ motion for summary judgment pending (but not before some undoubtedly unsettling brou-haha about the plaintiff’s counsel’s temporary unauthorized practice of law due to her apparent failure to pay fees on time). Original post […]
The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota issued a press release yesterday welcoming U.S. Mag. Judge Hildy Bowbeer! Review the linked press release for details of Mag. Judge Bowbeer’s extensive experience and expertise in civil litigation and, in particular, in the intellectual property niche. (Linked here is profile of Judge Bowbeer from […]
Civil litigators know that they have the power in both state and federal court in Minnesota to “issue subpoenas,” which essentially means that the lawyers can act like judges and issue court orders. That said, the rules for issuing subpoenas have safeguards built in to prevent abuse and if courts conclude that civil litigators have […]
In large litigation involving unbalanced resources on one side of the litigation or the other, the richer side’s tactics that burn up the other side’s resources are cost-effective even if those tactics are rejected by the court and found to be without merit. Imagine, for example, producing millions of pages of documents and redacting hundreds or thousands of them (that is, […]
SCENARIO #1: Classic attorney-client privilege: Client-to-Attorney: “Attorney, if I undertake ‘that certain financial transaction,’ might that later be held to be tax fraud? What can we do to achieve our objective without getting cross-wise with the I.R.S.?” SCENARIO #2: Classically ambiguous/uncertain privilege: Client Representative #1 to Client Representative #2 copied to In-House Attorney:”Rep. #2, let’s undertake ‘that certain financial […]
Someone posted an anonymous note on the internet saying that a kid kissed a teacher and the kid responded on the internet, “Actually yeah.” That “was meant to be taken in jest. This was a mistake. He has since learned that sarcasm does not translate well over the internet. He never intended for anyone to […]