As all lawyers should know, at least as far as civil litigation is concerned, it takes a minimum of three to tango.  One needs a plaintiff, a defendant, and a forum (a court, an arbitration panel, a mediator, etc.). And a core element of the adversary system is, of course, “due process,” — wherever and whenever […]

“Whose Line is it Anyway” is the title for a British sketch comedy show but the words take on a new meaning when applied to the tribulations of a Minnesota attorney disciplined today for cocaine possession in court when in the courthouse defending an accused in a criminal trial. Kidding aside, substance abuse in the […]

Subject matter jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear a particular type of case.  It is a vital concept, as a court without subject matter jurisdiction has no power to render a valid decision in a matter.  Recently, the Minnesota Court of Appeals addressed the question of whether Minnesota courts have subject matter […]

Eric Black on Erick Kaardal’s constitutional challenge to the “not really shutdown shutdown.”

One of the many procedural niceties of civil litigation that escapes the attention of most people almost always, and even many lawyers often, is the timing for enforcing judgments.  When do I see the $$$? If I win at the trial court on a claim that comes with attorneys’ fees, can I be awarded attorneys’ […]

Minnesota Litigator is proud to announce another guest poster, Rob Shainess of Capstone Law. After seven years at one of Minnesota’s largest law firms, Rob founded Capstone Law, LLC where the focuses are real estate disputes, small and family business litigation, and personal injury, practice areas with the shared core values of property, livelihood, family, […]

Update (July 7, 2011): A big win for plaintiffs’ class actions before the Eighth Circuit this week.  Judge Diana E. Murphy wrote the opinion, in which Judge Roger L. Wollman concurred, affirming U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery’s class certification in its entirety. Judge Raymond W. Gruender dissented, arguing that the “dry plaintiffs’ class,”  that […]

With the occasional exception, it may be fair to say that the era of the sprawling and epic novel is over.  The great 19th-20th century Russian novelists — Tolstoy, Dostoievski, Turgenev — are not known for the brevity of their works and, in this day and age where our attention spans seem to be byte-sized, […]

Update # 2 (July 5, 2011): When Minnesota Litigator first reported this lawsuit brought by TCF Bank nominally against Ben Bernanke challenging the federal Dodd-Frank banking legislation signed into law by Pres. Barack Obama on 7/21/10, Minnesota Litigator included a quote from a merchant industry trade group saying the case had “zero legal merit.” The […]

For some time now, Minnesota Litigator has noted the on-going “non-signing spouse” scenario — that is, cases in which a lender seeks to enforce a mortgage against a borrower only to have a hidden spouse pop up and, relying on Minn. Stat. § 507.02, argue that the mortgage is void because one of two of a […]