(A “pas de deux” is basically a dance duet.) Sometimes, staring into the eyes of one’s dance partner, one might barely hear the music trail off or notice the lights blinking as the bar signals its last call. In a wholly different context, civil litigation, the parties may become so entwined in their intense duet […]

Update (2/6/2012):  No luck for the Crummy employer.  The trial court’s decision against Enterprise Minnesota was affirmed in all respects. Congratulations to plaintiff’s counsel (and Minnesota Litigator guest poster), T.J. Conley! Original Post (2/22/2011):  The case of plaintiff/former employee Richard Crummy against his former employer, Enterprise Minnesota, is a sad story, all told, but apparently […]

The Minnesota State Bar Association’s “Man in St. Paul,” Bryan Lake reported on Friday, 2-3-20312 that, out of the blocks for this legislative session: by and large, Republican legislators have proposed bills to limit the number of lawsuits and limit the amounts that plaintiffs may recover.  Democrats have opposed the bills.  The bills passed on “mostly […]

Gary and Sally Peterson of Blaine borrowed $840,000.00 in December, 2006 secured by a mortgage on their home and, like so many others nationwide, apparently were unable to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments. Within three years, they sought to rescind the mortgage loan claiming that they had a right to do so under […]

Update #3 (February 1, 2012): Think twice or three times before flaming your MD on a “rate-your-doctor” website (or flaming anyone on any website (or social media)).   If you say that the MD seemed like “a real tool,” this would be your opinion, probably not a factual allegation for which you could be successfully sued […]

Update (2/1/2012):  The prospect of all fifty states, each having its own standards on proper pig slaughter technique, is unappetizing to meat producers, to the U.S. Congress (which has enacted federal slaughterhouse legislation), and to the justices of the Supreme Court, as well. Notwithstanding the Star Tribune’s weighing in against Steven Wells and the National […]

In civil litigation, well over 90% of cases settle so lawyers’ writing jury instructions is an infrequent and exceptional part of almost every civil litigator’s work-life. (Non-litigators and lay people may be surprised to hear that trial lawyers, rather than the court or the judge write the jury instructions.  In fact, the writing of jury […]

I recently told the students in my Employment Discrimination class that we don’t see many claims brought under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.  As if to prove me a liar, the Eighth Circuit just this week affirmed a grant of summary judgment in a retaliation case under that very Civil War […]

Oral promises are, by their nature, fleeting and unreliable.  This is apparently even more true when the promise is about manure. In Maday v. Grathwohl, the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that a written “Manure Easement” superseded a prior oral promise to deliver all manure to a neighboring farm.  As a result, the neighboring farm that wants […]

Less than two years ago, the United States Supreme Court limited the availability of arbitrations in class action cases when it decided that a party may not be compelled under the Federal Arbitration Act to submit to class arbitration unless there is a contractual basis for concluding that the party agreed to do so.  Stolt-Nielsen […]