Update (September 6, 2012): Just in time for the new school year comes an initial ruling on the validity and boundaries of Facebook speech in public high schools. Chief Judge Michael Davis (D. Minn.) partially granted the Minnewaska School District’s motion to dismiss, but left the majority of the claims in 12-year-old R.S.’s Complaint live […]
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has rejected the “Blame the Lawyer” argument. In Remodeling Dimensions, Inc. v. Integrity Mutual Insurance Co., a contractor argued that its attorney’s representation was so bad as to constitute a breach of the insurer’s obligation to appoint counsel. As Shakespeare said, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Minnesota litigators are well aware of the substantial difference between taking third-party discovery out of state for a federal case pending in Minnesota as compared to a Minnesota state court action. Federal subpoenas are standardized and relatively straight-forward. The process for out-of-state discovery for use in Minnesota state court actions is significantly more varied and […]
The key point of Ramsey Court Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin’s decision: The Legislative branch has the fundamental constitutional power to appropriate the public funds. This power is tempered by the Governor’s veto authority. Their policy differences regarding how to deal with Minnesota’s present budget situation can only be resolved by them. Those branches have the […]
In a complaint filed in United States District Court, (Central District (Los Angeles)), Plaintiff Dr. John Wagner, Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Division of Hematology-Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics, and Medical Director of the Stem Cell Institute at the University of Minnesota, among other […]
Dennnis Hecker faces civil discovery and a number of civil complaints in his personal bankruptcy case and sought the Court’s help (by staying those cases) in preserving his rights as a potential criminal defendant (that is, his right to remain silent) in the event he is criminally charged based on the transactions that are the […]
An interesting little puzzle: if a public entity and a “gad-fly” advocacy group enter into a settlement agreement whereby the gad-fly will not address any further challenges to the public entity’s conduct that he originally challenged through litigation, will a later complaint by the public entity for the breach of that settlement agreement against the […]
With this brief entry, the Minnesota Litigator slips across the statelines and into a development in South Dakota criminal law… This past week the South Dakota Supreme Court held that evidence had to be suppressed (evidence, it seems, of some 10 lbs. of marijuana) because the South Dakota police officer released his drug-sniffing dog on […]
Today the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision (but not the standard break-down between “conservatives” and “liberals”), held that the accused in criminal cases is entitled to confront witnesses under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution such that a certificate of state laboratory analysts as to drug weight or composition was not sufficient […]