Minnesota Litigator
News & Commentary
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“Amazing Attorney!” “Excellent Attorney!” “Takes your money, that’s it…”
Update (July 1, 2016): The trail of alleged betrayal, lies, thievery, and deceit of Minnesota lawyer, Ron Resnik, will not be made into a major motion picture (notwithstanding a screenplay-sized complaint containing 13 counts of alleged unethical conduct). Stealing a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand dollars from Minnesotans in need of a lawyer […]
Lawyers & The Free Market: Off-Shoot or Shoot-Out?
Update/Correction (June 29, 2106): On further investigation, with the help of a loyal Minnesota Litigator reader, I note that Mr. Aase, sadly, appears to have died at the age of 40 back in April, 2015. So it appears that the conflict in the original post between Ms. Hedtke and her former firm was really between […]
Wolfchild: Thirteen Years of Litigation And Counting Over an 1895 Land Transaction…
Update (June 27, 2016): The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed the severe sanctions against Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s counsel in this seemingly endless battle, discussed below. “Federal Indian law is complex,” the Court held. Because the law is complex and because the Court of Appeals found that Plaintiff “made good-faith, nonfrivolous arguments distinguishing, […]
A Win for Process over Substance and a Warning for Sloppy Plaintiffs’ Lawyers…
Keith Melillo had a tough time serving Terry Heitland with a summons and complaint in connection with a car crash that Mr. Melillo was in. Melillo (or, more probably, his lawyer) tried the Sheriff’s office, then a private process server. No luck. The next step was sending the summons and complaint by certified mail to Mr. Heitland. Lo and […]
Settlement Conference Attendance and “Full Settlement Authority”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janie S. Mayeron (D. Minn.) recently chided lawyers on both sides of a lawsuit for showing up at a court-ordered settlement conference without their clients and without permission of the Court to show up without their clients. We have to assume that the lawyers involved did not have very much litigation experience […]
What A Difference an “A” (versus an “a”) Makes…
Update (June 21, 2016): In the case described recently, below, where a litigant argued that the entire case hinged on the meaning of “asset” with a “small a” in a contract, U.S. District Court Judge Susan R. Nelson (D. Minn.) denied the defendant’s request for “interlocutory appeal” this week. (Think of requests for “interlocutory appeals” as […]
Contract Drafting and Indemnification Clauses
Indemnification clauses might be the most important clauses in business contracts that business people ignore but lawyers should craft them with great care. Like a great deal of legal work, crafting indemnification clauses fails to scintillate. But well-written clauses can save clients big bucks — not only in terms of protecting clients from loss or liability but also in the […]