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.
Must UPS Hire and Train a Deaf Driver?
The recent denial of summary judgment sought by United Parcel Service (UPS) in a case brought on behalf of Mr. Jeffrey Pagenkopf is interesting on many levels. In no particular order, we first note that the Court’s memorandum sets out the means by which UPS selects drivers and trains them. The process is intensive and […]
Bixby et al. v. Lifespace: Written Promises for the Life of the Counter-Party Expire When?
Normally, it is large institutions (banks, retailers, manufacturers, etc.) who seek to hold “little people” (customers, individual consumers, small businesses) to contracts. From time to time, however, the tables are turned as they are in Bixby et al. v. Lifespace Communities, Inc., d/b/a Friendship Village of Bloomington (“Lifespace”), pending in U.S. District Court before Chief Judge […]
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Annual Check-Up of the Minnesota Law Firm Market
To our knowledge, there is no person more knowledgeable about the health and well-being of the market for legal services in Minnesota than Mr. Brian McMahon, Managing Director of the Minneapolis office of Major, Lindsey & Africa (“MLA”). MLA might be the most preeminent legal recruiting company worldwide. Mr. McMahon circulated a report this week from Hildebrandt […]
Is Going to a Dollar Tree store an Ultrahazardous Activity?
An ultrahazardous activity in the common law of torts is one that is so inherently dangerous that a person engaged in such an activity can be held strictly liable for injuries caused to another person, even if the person engaged in the activity took every reasonable precaution to prevent others from being injured. Examples are: transportation and storage of explosives, radioactive materials, or […]
Chief Judge Tunheim’s Annual State of the Feds Message
This week, the Minnesota Chapter of the Federal Bar Association enjoyed U.S. District Court Chief Judge John R. Tunheim’s yearly update on the state of the United States District Court for the district of Minnesota. For Minnesota Litigator, the lasting message was about the stress and the hardship of the partial shutdown of the federal […]
Larson King Might Consider Hiring A Proofeeder, Too?
Just teasing. Minnesota Litigator has been known, from time to time, for its typographical lapses, of course. We’ll go a step further: if your law firm enjoys a superbly low typo rate, we would submit that your clients are paying too much. Though it is true that typos are unfortunate and, particularly to perfectionists, they […]
Somewhere over the rainbow…
“Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly, birds fly over the rainbow, why, then, oh why can’t I?” You cannot fly over the rainbow for the same reason that bluebirds cannot read, I guess you might say. You don’t have wings and bluebirds’ brains are about the size of a pencil eraser. I think you should […]
Change or Pay
We wager the speed of social change may never have been faster than it has been in the past 200 years in the United States and it seems to be ever-accelerating. Nowhere is this more obvious than in our evolving understanding and treatment of the concepts of “gender” and “sexual identity.” And caution to people, […]
“Pro Nono Work”
Update (January 3, 2019): Pro bono work, as we all know, is legal service provided by lawyers without pay — charity. Pro nono work, is legal service provided by lawyers without pay — loser contingent fee cases, deadbeat clients, etc. Sadly, many fine lawyers have no time for pro bono work because they have too much […]