The cliché — “justice delayed is justice denied” — is so worn out that it is rhetorically dead.  In a brief, at a podium, before a jury, on its own, it may be counter-productive and unpersuasive. The tragedy is that, as we all know, the cliché has more than a hint of truth to it.   Lawyers […]

After nearly two years pending in the District of Minnesota, another one bites the dust for lack of subject matter jurisdiction… (U.S. District Court Judge Joan N. Ericksen (D. Minn.) gave the plaintiffs five days to show case for why the case should not be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.  The five days came […]

Update (June 4, 2011):  Minnesota Litigator received an email from Mr. Illig (or this was how the email was signed) suggesting that the incident did not involve any “ex-girlfriend,” that one could confirm by reference to “incident case number 73-t5-03-6755” (presumably a St. Cloud criminal case file), and that the St. Cloud Times also got […]

Having a monopoly on a naming convention of a fundamental building block of a nationwide industry (the legal industry) has been a pretty sweet deal for West Publishing for over one hundred years but it’s been eroding over the past twenty years and at an ever-increasing speed in recent years. As all lawyers know, West’s […]

One of the more common forms of attorney malpractice is the failure to protect clients from statutes of limitation.  A client comes to Lawyer on Day #1, when she has a valid claim, but Lawyer only drills down on the case later.  In the interim, the statute of limitation has accrued to bar the cause […]

A jury verdict has a drama, a momentousness, a sense of climax and conclusion, which is, more often than not, an illusion.   The verdict makes for great television, of course, but cases, though they are rarely tried to jury verdict, rarely end when a verdict is reached. This is undoubtedly particularly the case when […]

Update (May 27, 2011):  Motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction denied.  U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank (D. Minn.) found the plaintiff unlikely to be successful in his suit, a prerequisite to the preliminary relief plaintiff sought.  Another good reason to exercise moderation this holiday weekend (or, better yet, abstention for those […]

There is a widespread consensus that our recent economic free-fall is attributable in some large part to a “housing bubble,” a time during which more than a few mortgage lenders seem to have been eager to lend to any borrower who would execute loan documents without much focus, if any, on the borrowers’ ability to […]

Update (May 28, 2011) [CORRECTION]:  Minnesota Litigator jumped the gun below.  The day of this post, Gov. Dayton vetoed the referenced bill. Original post (May 27, 2011):  Our legislature grapples with difficult economic and social issues.  Our population is split more or less down the middle on critical questions about the role of government in […]

Update (5/26/2011):  ADT seems one step closer to having a Minnesota jury trial and the late production of documents, referenced below, may complicate its defense considerably (see pages 16-20 of this week’s order). Update (5/3/2011):  U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim (D. Minn.) heard argument on a number of motions on May 2.  Amanda […]