Patricia Dodson and Dr. Jackson Lay participated in an in vitro fertilization program in 1995, divorced in ’97, disagreed on whether Ms. Dodson could be implanted with Lay-fertilized eggs in ’99, and the issue has been touring the Arkansas state court system and the federal courts ever since.
Civil litigators have a special name for free legal services normally: “pro bono,” short for “pro bono publico,” translated as “for the public good.” (And for some civil litigators another term for free legal services : contingent fee work (for a lost case)). In two recent decisions from the U.S. District Court (D. Minn.) […]
Monday Morning was to have been the time for argument before the Minnesota Supreme Court in the Rucker case against attorney Steven Schmidt and the now-defunct Twin Cities law firm of Rider Bennett LLP. Argument has been rescheduled (though the rescheduled time is not evident on the Court’s calendar online). The lawsuit arises in the […]
The heading for this post has a double meaning, referring to products liability claims arising from Medtronic’s recalled Sprint Fidelis “lead,” an implantable cardiac defibrillator (that is, a remedy for a broken heart?), and also the efforts of a flotilla of products liability plaintiffs to revive their lawsuit, which was resoundingly rejected by U.S. District […]
As covered on Minnesota Litigator at some length roughly over 1Q, ’10 (here, here, and here), plaintiff/Compucredit debt-holders came in, guns blazing, in the waning days of 2009 but their blitz was rebuffed time and time again. Now the fight, if it is to continued at all, will head to Compucredit’s home turf of Atlanta, […]
The linked order from U.S. Mag. Judge Janie S. Mayeron (D. Minn.) may be useful for Minnesota litigators to get a feel for how litigants and the Court approach requests for large amounts of electronically stored information (ESI).
One-time high-flyer car dealer, Dennis E. Hecker, is reduced to this: the Bankruptcy Trustee has sought an order from the Court to turn over Hecker’s leaf blower (it is a nice one). Things are bad when a Minnesotan is stripped of his leaf blower. (The Trustee is seeking a handful of other assets and […]
UPDATE: Jury returns verdict for +/- $27 million (but no finding of wilfulness) against US Bank, et al. Here’s the earlier story from 2/28/10: Reported on MinnnPost (excellent article by Brad Allen!), Minneapolis-based US Bank is headed for trial in United States District Court in Texas (E.D. Tex., Marshall Division) to defend a patent infringement […]
Minnesota’s Sleep Number company, Select Comfort, had a commercial transaction gone bad with a company that has now gone bankrupt, an altogether too common scenario over the past year or two. And from Select Comfort’s allegations, it would appear that money was paid, but services not provided. However, there are at least a few problems […]
Surfactants, or surface active agents, are chemicals with interesting and valuable properties. They are used in no-stick frying pans, water-proofing/stain-proofing, cosmetics, lubricants, and fire-fighting materials. They have even been experimentally used as blood substitutes. Their uses are obviously diverse and the revenues from surfactants are in the many billions of dollars annually. A particular family […]