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 Primer on Prejudgment Interest in Minnesota
Some Minnesota Litigator posts appeal to a broad readership. This is not one of them. If you are not a trial lawyer, you should probably stop reading here. The Schwendiman v. Arkwright patent infringement lawsuit started on April Fool’s Day, 2011. Schendiman won a $2,624,228 jury verdict on October 18, 2017. Although this is a significant […]
Regulating Private Surveillance (or Not)
Ms. Omarose Onee Manigault Newman (widely known as “Omarosa”) has been in the news lately promoting her “tell-all” book about her stint in the Trump White House (words whose juxtaposition will sadden and nauseate Minnesota Litigator for life). In promoting her book, Omarosa has revealed that she surreptitiously digitally recorded conversations that she had, even in […]
On Rope-a-Dope as a Civil Litigation Strategy
Update (August 16, 2018): Predictably, plaintiff’s counsel in the case described below want to keep the defense lawyers in the ring, or at least to avoid any delay caused by the lawyers’ attempt to thrown in the towel. Update (August 10, 2018): Things have gone from bad to worse for Defendants, Geckobyte and R. Tiegen Fryberger, […]
ELIGIBLE MINNESOTA VOTERS: VOTE OR STFU! AUGUST 14 = PRIMARY DAY
For some time in U.S. politics, a large swath of the electorate concluded that Democrats and Republicans were like Coke and Pepsi, two versions of basically indistinguishable sickeningly sweetened corporate junk food. We hope that the election of Republican Donald J. Trump over Hilary Clinton, his Democratic rival, has put an end to this over-simplified […]
GOOTCH!
Update (August 13, 2018): We introduced the neologism, “GOOTCH,” about three years ago (see below). Chief Judge John R. Tunheim (D. Minn.) issued what, in our view, was a pretty strong GOOTCH Order last week on behalf of a LEVENTHAL pllc client. Judge Tunheim dropped a few references to Rule 11 (in footnotes 1 and […]
“Guilty of Suppressio Veri”
Let us all hope that the linked recent Court of Appeals decision against Rochester City Lines (“RCL”) is the terminus of this excruciating litigation road-trip. RCL seems to have had a pretty sweet deal, a contract to provide bussing with the city of Rochester for 46 years. It is putting it mildly to suggest that […]
“The Truth, Maybe, or Part of the Truth, or, Maybe Something Other than the Truth”
Minnesota Litigator has criticized mainstream media (the Star Tribune, mostly) for their often repeated failure to link to complaints when they pull their news stories from complaints filed in courts (but, we also give credit when due, see here). First, they are depriving their readership of a “deeper dive” into the allegations. Second, they rarely identify […]
Balancing the Interests of “News” & Private Citizens’ Rights
From time to time, our Minnesota Supreme Court surprises us by taking cases that, in our view, were plainly correctly decided by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. This is the case with Larson v. Gannett Co., et al., a defamation lawsuit brought by Mr. Ryan Larson, who was incorrectly arrested and apparently charged with murder […]
In Offering Employment, Is There a Duty to Disclose You’re Sleazy?
Steve Dupuis was president of a company in Memphis, Tennessee, where he made $600,000/year. He left that job to be the president of GATR Truck Center, near St. Cloud, Minnesota, for $350,000/yr plus deferred and equity compensation that would vest after employment of a set number of years. Mr. Dupuis was obviously willing to take quite […]
Arbitration, Judging and Profiting
LEVENTHAL pllc has enjoyed considerable success in representing clients in arbitrations, but we have also been critical of arbitration as a form of dispute resolution. Arbitration is a money-making endeavor. Subjecting judging to market forces raises serious and obvious risks of contamination of a justice process. For example, if a Fortune 100 company imposes arbitration […]