Congratulations to Minneapolis lawyer, Joshua Williams, for a $500,000 jury verdict for the plaintiff in Daniel v. City of Minneapolis. Williams had to take the case up to the Minnesota Supreme Court and back down again before getting his client his day in court. (The issue that went up to the Minnesota Supreme Court was […]
Long time readers of Minnesota Litigator will know that lawyers use the acronym SOL to mean “statute of limitation” but also refer to an alternative meaning: “sh*t out of luck.” This week, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed a district court ruling that the plaintiff in a sexual harassment claim was barred by the statute […]
Photo by Molly Steenson Here we go again (not). 2019 has been an anomaly for LEVENTHAL pllc as we have had two jury trials. We have had three trials disappear the day before the scheduled trials (one arbitration and two trials in state district court, to be precise). In the first instance, we settled on day […]
Update (September 30, 2019): What a relief that the Minnesota Supreme Court has tackled a complicated question, described below and, we hope, has resolved it. In a nutshell, the question the Minnesota Supreme Court had to tackle was reconciling two analyses to be used to determine the “accrual date” for certain kinds of legal claims […]
In the old days, spoliation was pretty straight-forward. Back in the day, spoliation of tangible objects might have been more difficult to detect (no “digital bread crumbs”) but, once detected, it was pretty easy to establish. Documents (or buildings, machine parts, or whatever form of evidence) existed and then disappeared…Tangible things were altered or destroyed. […]
The business of law has never been as cut-throat and dollar-driven as it is today. Take Exhibit A: DeWitt LLP v. Anderson. Apparently, in late 2015, the DeWitt law firm, with offices in Minneapolis, Madison, Wisconsin, and Brookfield, Wisconsin hired a recruiting firm and poached attorney Susan L. Anderson from the Minneapolis law firm of […]
A lot of very smart people have been puzzling and arguing over the high cost of civil litigation in the United States for at least 50 years. Is it because there is too much litigation (driving up the price)? Is it caused by the distortive role of insurance, which is in play (and, in fact, […]
The career of former Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Commerce is an inspiring 21st century story. Mike has enjoyed decades of success in the public and the private sectors and now is running his own law firm. (You can find a chronology of his career, with its many highlights, here, and information about Rothman […]
There is a widespread consensus among civil litigators that plaintiffs generally prefer state court and defendants prefer federal court. However, in our experience, it is always prudent to question all “widespread consensuses,” by which we simply mean it is always good to think independently and critically rather than blindly accepting “common sense” or “consensus.” Having […]