Minnesota Litigator
News & Commentary
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Here we go again…
Back-to-back examples this week of sorts of silliness that consume some percentage of the busy lives of U.S. civil litigators…. Harriet Ziefert has written several hundred children’s books. She and her publisher, Blue Apple, believe that a Minneapolis-based book distribution company, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, L.L.C. (“Consortium”) and/or Consortium’s parent company, Perseus, is infringing on several […]
On the occasional absurdity of the job of the civil litigator…
I once faced a situation in which a judge ruled that adversaries had to go to trial to determine when Party A’s building, which was built partially on Party B’s land by a predecessor owner, constituted a “permanent” trespass or a “continuing” trespass. The judge believed that the distinction was important for determining the application of […]
Threading the Needle: “Ordinary” Work Product vs. “Opinion” Work Product
What is discoverable and relevant in U.S. civil litigation surprises many people who do not have experience in U.S. civil litigation. Most Americans do not appreciate how deeply our law allows adversaries to dig into the other side’s papers, emails, text messages, diaries, journals, post-it notes, doodle sketchbooks and hard drives. Foreigners are often even more shocked, if not incredulous. At […]
A Grave Lapse in Foster Care Facility Triggers A Rare Grant of a Punitive Damages Motion
“Welcome to Options Residential…People Deserve the Opportunity to Fully Experience Life.” Many of us have experienced a nightmare of being paralyzed, immobilized, and mistreated — from mere teasing and threats to, in the worst instances, pursuit, abuse, or torture. The combination of powerlessness, apprehension and pain is horrifying. Consider Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Some […]
THIS WEEK: A Duel of Minnesota Civil Litigator Titans…CANCELED
Over a year ago, I posted about Bison Advisors v. Kessler, et al., focusing on a garden-variety discovery dispute which I characterized as slightly demeaning to the lives and livelihoods of civil litigators — deadlocked impasse as to whether a deposition should be allowed to go for 2 hours or 7 hours. The two sides fought […]
Another Minnesota Haircut….This Time Did the Court Nick Its Nose to Spite its Face?
The City of Minneapolis battled with a plaintiff in a civil rights case, negotiated a settlement and included in the settlement an offer to pay the plaintiff’s lawyer, $49,999. The plaintiff’s lawyer would not agree to accept anything less than $52,088.50. So they went before U.S. District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (D. Minn.) to resolve their […]
A Depiction of Civil Justice in Action and The Irony of the Market for Civil Litigation Services (Lawyering)
Updated post (August 22, 2016): Minnesota Litigator notches another successful prediction in a posted prediction last March in the Storms v. Mathy Construction case discussed below after the break. The Minnesota Supreme Court reversed the intermediate Court of Appeals last week. The point of my original post was that I believed that the trial court reached […]
A Quick Glimpse at a Recent D. Minn. Immigration-Related Decision
Minnesota Litigator focuses on “news and developments” in Minnesota civil litigation but it tends to be even more focused on the kinds of Minnesota civil litigation that its writers practice. As a result, there is very little focus on family law, intellectual patent litigation, ERISA litigation or other areas of law outside of the zone […]
That you have the RIGHT to do something, does not mean you should do it…
U.S. District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (D. Minn.) must have stunned Derrick Weber of Messerli & Kramer when Mr. Weber sought sanctions against his adversary, Bennett Hartz, along with Hartz’s client, Ms. Bendickson. The Court, in response, came down on Weber like a ton of bricks. The case involved debt collection by Messerli & Kramer and its […]
On the Challenges of Decision-Making (By Journalists and The Justice System)
For more than five years, I have repeatedly chided the Star Tribune for running stories that rely heavily on court documents but failing to link to the documents themselves. Last week they did it again, this time in the context of a $3.5 million award based on sexual-orientation discrimination in favor of Mr. Stephen Habberstad against two small […]