Twin Cities employment lawyer and blogger T.J. Conley analyzes the decision and its import against Medtronic and in favor of St. Jude Medical.  Conley concludes that Ramsey County Judge M. Michael Monahan got it right, though the case broke no new legal ground.  A commenter to TJ’s blog chimed in, “Who was the mystery lawyer […]

[UPDATE :  This week the Minnesota Supreme Court denied the petition for review of the Murrin v. Mosher appellate court decision, a case orginally discussed below on Minnesota Litigator back in March, 2010.] Minnesota Litigator aspires to provide a one-stop source for news and developments in Minnesota state and federal courts, whether about particular cases, […]

Regular Minnesota Litigator readers are familiar with several cases over the past couple of years in which, during the current mortgage foreclosure tsunami, some home-owners have challenged foreclosures against them for lack of a signature of a spouse on the mortgage without which the security interest may be invalid.  (Their challenges have had mixed success.) […]

On television, as the courtroom drama reaches its climax, the doors in the back of the courtroom bang open and, lo and behold, the key witness, long thought dead or nonexistent, radically alters the trial’s dynamics and outcome. In the real world, such scenarios are anathema.  The proverbial “trial by ambush” is to be avoided […]

Minnesota Litigator recently covered the U.S. District Court (D. Minn., Frank, J.) denial of law firm defendant’s motion to dismiss in a case of alleged professional malpractice, highlighting the Court’s strong disapproval of the moving party’s tone (Minnesota Litigator also covered the earlier dismissal of plaintiffs’ case with leave to amend) in the case of […]

[UPDATE: ML Readers will recall this case in which Gander Mountain took issue with a credit card vendor that allegedly refuses to pay an agreed-upon card-holder “bounty” for customers who are unprofitable for the card company (i.e., they pay off their card balances, incurring no penalties and paying no interest).  Now World Financial Network National […]

It is a convention of many contractual agreements to begin with a title, a very brief sentence identifying the contracting parties and the date, followed by “recitals,” followed by “the agreement.”  “Recitals” often are numbered and start with “Whereas,” as in, “Whereas the Party A has a broken car, Whereas Party B is a mechanic…” […]

KSTP has lost its bid for access to absentee ballots at the Minnesota Court of Appeals, on an election day as it happens…

Update (August 8, 2011):  Minnesota Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals last week. Original post (August 25, 2010):  “Spoliation,” also known as the destruction of evidence, often triggers thoughts of deliberate malfeasance — deep-sixing the smoking gun and the like.   Far more common, however, is the repair of a broken machine followed by […]

For many years, Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure used to require that class certification motions be brought “as soon as practicable after the commencement of the action.”   It seems that no one ever knew what this meant.  And, in addition, many lawyers and judges thought that it was bad policy […]