Minnesota Litigator

News & Commentary

Do not consider the blog to be a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney licensed in your state.

A Sweet Victory in Round 2

Computer Forensic Services (“CFS”) had a stinging defeat some years ago in Hennepin County District Court (“CFS v. Afremov”), which other adversaries then sought to exploit in unrelated litigation. CFS vigorously defended the accusations that the court leveled against it in CFS v Afremov, pointing out that the Hennepin County District Court decision against CFS […]

U of MN Law School Prof. Edward Adams’ Guilty Plea

Here is Prof. Adams’ guilty plea (misdemeanor, violation of 26 U.S.C. 7603). Sentencing will be up to Sr. U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank (informed by the sentencing guidelines, of course).

“Papers & Property to Which The Client Is Entitled….”

Minnesota lawyers know (or should know) all about Minnesota Rule of Professional Conduct 1.16(e) (“Papers and property to which the client is entitled…”). The rule sets out lawyers’ obligations to give clients’ their files on termination of representation. The ethics rule tries to balance the interests of lawyers and clients as to their respective rights […]

Boxing Boxers

A Recent Hard-Won Victory

Congratulations to Minneapolis lawyer, Joshua Williams, for a $500,000 jury verdict for the plaintiff in Daniel v. City of Minneapolis. Williams had to take the case up to the Minnesota Supreme Court and back down again before getting his client his day in court. (The issue that went up to the Minnesota Supreme Court was […]

Outrageous Sexual Harassment Claim But Still S.O.L.

Long time readers of Minnesota Litigator will know that lawyers use the acronym SOL to mean “statute of limitation” but also refer to an alternative meaning: “sh*t out of luck.” This week, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed a district court ruling that the plaintiff in a sexual harassment claim was barred by the statute […]

TRIAL (NOT) (AGAIN)

Photo by Molly Steenson Here we go again (not). 2019 has been an anomaly for LEVENTHAL pllc as we have had two jury trials. We have had three trials disappear the day before the scheduled trials (one arbitration and two trials in state district court, to be precise). In the first instance, we settled on day […]

Got Time? The “Point of No Return” Rule vs. “Some Damage” Rule

Update (September 30, 2019):  What a relief that the Minnesota Supreme Court has tackled a complicated question, described below and, we hope, has resolved it. In a nutshell, the question the Minnesota Supreme Court had to tackle was reconciling two analyses to be used to determine the “accrual date” for certain kinds of legal claims […]

On Portals, Conduits, Platforms & Digital Spoliation

In the old days, spoliation was pretty straight-forward. Back in the day, spoliation of tangible objects might have been more difficult to detect (no “digital bread crumbs”) but, once detected, it was pretty easy to establish. Documents (or buildings, machine parts, or whatever form of evidence) existed and then disappeared…Tangible things were altered or destroyed. […]

TRIAL

Photo by Molly Steenson Talk amongst yourselves…. I’ll be back…

The Current State of The Law Business

The business of law has never been as cut-throat and dollar-driven as it is today. Take Exhibit A: DeWitt LLP v. Anderson. Apparently, in late 2015, the DeWitt law firm, with offices in Minneapolis, Madison, Wisconsin, and Brookfield, Wisconsin hired a recruiting firm and poached attorney Susan L. Anderson from the Minneapolis law firm of […]