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.

Our Schools are the Bomb Factories Where our Kids’ Hormonal Fire-Works are Set Off.

For years now, Minnesota Litigator has tried to catch the next big wave in civil litigation. We have tried to predict growth in particular areas of civil litigation and we kind of caught this one (September 5, 2017: He Sad/She Sad, The Next Big Wave?). Hang ten. Kowabunga. Hello, hello, hello, how low Hello, hello, […]

Good-bye and Good Riddance to Bar Louie in Uptown (and How Not to Run a Bar)

  Update (June 6, 2018): We commented recently on the closing of Bar Louie in Minneapolis (see below), openly questioning how this pertained to “News and Commentary about Minnesota Civil Litigation,” which is our subject matter focus. Apparently, we were prescient. Linked here is a complaint against Bar Louie filed this week in U.S. District Court […]

All in the Family: How The Restriction on Restrictions Shapes Our Legal Market

Update (June 5, 2018): In last Thursday’s post, below, we mentioned Life Time, Inc.’s “bringing the hammer down” on former employees for violations of their non-competition agreements (and related alleged wrong-doing). Life Time prevailed on its motion for a preliminary injunction yesterday. Congratulations to Life Time and its lawyers, Patrick Martin and Stephanie Willing from […]

Kremer vs. Kremer: A Development in MN Law re: Antenuptial Agreements

Update (June 4, 2018): ATTENTION 2018 WEDDING PARTICIPANTS: Sneaking off to a lawyer repeatedly before the wedding day and then confronting your fiancé with a “prenup” while guests are en route to your destination wedding will likely not fly in Minnesota. To go all legal on you: In the Kremer v. Kremer case, discussed below […]

Abuse of Power or Abuse of Mower?

Update (May 30, 2018): We learn this week that the defendant City of Gilbert in the lawn mower clipping/alleged police misconduct case, described below, has apparently satisfied its cost judgment of $7,301.87 against the unsuccessful plaintiff in this small-town dust-up of alleged police officer/citizen (mis)conduct. This post should serve as a seasonally appropriate reminder about […]

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Update (May 27, 2018): We looked through past Minnesota Litigator Memorial Day posts and, over the years, the one below seemed the best to re-circulate this year. Many of the other prior years’ Memorial Day posts were more closely tied to the true origin of the holiday — the solemn remembrance of those who have […]

Who Pays When Contract Specifications Are Incomprehensible or Unreasonable?

Rumplestiltskin is a bizarre fairy tale that begins with a very difficult situation for a young woman. (Scholars have suggested that the tale is over 4,000 years old, which might explain how weird it is. Very old stories are often very weird.) The young woman’s father, a miller, boasted that his daughter could convert straw […]

Megaphone Announcement Speaker

44th Annual Federal Practice Seminar & Mason Memorial Lunch: Thursday, May 24, IDS

Update (May 16, 2018): Registration closes on Friday, May 18. Original post (April 4, 2018): Minnesota litigators: Mark your calendars for a valuable CLE by the Minnesota Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (May 24, Downtown Minneapolis (IDS)). Register here. Why? Check out the detailed agenda here. What do you see? Truly cutting edge legal and legal/techno issues: cell phone forensics the […]

What’s so special about “special proceedings”?

When I started practicing law, I thought that all legal matters started with a complaint and an answer, then proceeded to trial, with a judgment, and then maybe an appeal. Come to find out that there’s this whole category of “special proceedings” that are different. Special proceedings usually start with a petition or a motion, […]

On The Layers of Law in a Federalist System

One of the more complicated parts of our justice system (and our country’s governance) is the layers of federal and state law. Almost all of us have an understanding that the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution elevates federal law over state law. But the question of when federal laws and states laws conflict is […]