Minnesota Litigator
News & Commentary
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The Enigma of “Foreseeability,” v.3.0
We have previously posted about “the enigma of foreseeability.” The COVID-19 pandemic gives us another chance to challenge the superficially simple concept of “foreseeability.” On the one hand, it is obvious that very few of us could have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic even six months ago. It was therefore “unforeseeable,” right? On the other hand, […]
Prairie River Home Care v. Procura: The Third Shoe Drops.
Update (April 8, 2020): We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of our coverage of the Prairie River Home Care v. Procura case, which we have highlighted as a fine example of how not to defend a lawsuit. We’ve posted about the case several times. To review, Procura agreed to provide a software system […]
Is The Corona Virus Pandemic a Force Majeure Event Excusing Contractual Performance?
Black’s Law Dictionary defines a force majeure clause as “[a] contractual provision allocating the risk if performance becomes impossible or impracticable, esp. as a result of an event or effect that the parties could not have anticipated or controlled.” Black’s Law Dictionary 673-74 (8th ed. 2004). A force majeure event is commonly considered to be […]
A Particularly Satisfying Minnesota Litigator Prediction
Many years ago, a seasoned stock-broker cautioned his brother, a lawyer (who happened to be my father), “If you’re going to predict, predict often…,” which has long been one of my all-time favorite aphorisms. Last April, we predicted that Minnesota Sands would lose in its challenge to the constitutionality of the City of Winona’s regulation […]
Alleged Attorney Wrong-Doing, A Search Warrant, & The Attorney-Client Privilege
In this post, we follow up on an earlier Minnesota Litigator post about the attorney-client privilege in the context of criminal investigation of attorney wrong-doing. This week, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued its ruling in K.M. v. Burnsville Police Department, et al. in favor of the police and adverse to the lawyer. The lawyer was […]
Dumber than a Dumb Law…
For some years now, Minnesota Litigator been critical of a federal laws exposing financial institutions and businesses to serious liability for fairly inconsequential lapses or disclosures related to ATM fees and partial numbers on credit card receipts. (For example, disclosing the month a credit card expires but not the year on a credit card receipt […]
Let this be a lesson….
We recently posted about a “brain raid” case in which a company vRad went after a former employee for violation of his non-compete and misappropriation of trade secrets. In our view, things did not look good for Mr. Rabern, the former employee, in opposing vRad’s threshold motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent Mr. Rabern […]
When Cultures Collide…
LEVENTHAL pllc once had a land-lord tenant dispute involving parties in an immigrant community. The judicial action had a “concurrent shadow sister-adjudication,” if you will, of village elders. A side-show that eclipsed the event on the main stage. Good times. Rules of Civil Procedure need not apply… So we have sympathy for defense counsel in […]
Olson v. Lesch: Will This Hard Case Make Bad Law?
Mr. John Lesch, a Minnesota legislator (state representative for house district 66B, which includes part of Ramsey County), wrote a private and expressly confidential letter to Mr. Melvin Carter, the Mayor of St. Paul, in which Mr. Lesch expressed concerns and misgivings about Mayor Carter’s hiring of Ms. Lyndsey Olson as City Attorney. Somehow, Ms. […]
The Ethics of Lawyers Talking Directly to an Opposing Party Through a Client Conduit
“The walls have ears,” is a catchy phrase and this has never been more true than now, with most people running around with easily concealed digital recording devices (let alone ubiquitous web-cams, security cameras, and the like). We have frankly been a bit taken back by the number of LEVENTHAL pllc clients who come to […]