Minnesota Litigator

News & Commentary

Do not consider the blog to be a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney licensed in your state.

These Are The Dog Days…

The dog days of summer are the hot, sultry days of summer, that is, days like today. What perfect timing for a post about a dog case. When Ms. Danielle Zephier moved from Minnesota to California, she left Oliver, a rather old mutt (mixed poodle/beagle, 10 yrs. old) (along with fellow hound, Alex) with Ms. Zephier’s father. After […]

Another one bites the dust…

Happy Anniversary to Minnesota Rule 5.04! For about six years, we’ve raised the alarm about Rule 5.4 of the Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure and, specifically, an amendment made effective on July 1, 2015, that requires that lawsuits be filed in court within one year of service. We have even sued a law firm for […]

“Aurora Waived The Non-Waiver Clause.”

It is possible that one of the dimmest prospects for appeal in civil litigation is the appeal of an arbitration award. As painful as this is for many arbitration losers, the reason should be obvious: the whole point of arbitration is to stay out of court and, all the more, to limit any possibility of […]

The Doctrine of Champerty Is Dead in Minnesota.

Update (June 5, 2020): Our hope (expressed in the original post below) has been realized. The Minnesota Supreme Court struck down the “hoary” common law doctrine of champerty this week in Maslowski v. Prospect Funding Partners. Read the Minnesota Supreme Court’s discussion of the origin of the doctrine and it will highlight how out of […]

Lawyers As Expert Witnesses

The practice of LEVENTHAL pllc is broad and includes an array of Minnesota civil litigation (litigation involving colleagues, customers, competitors, vendors and lenders, we sometimes say). But we have niche expertise in a particular area of Minnesota civil litigation: legal malpractice. As such, by statute, we are obligated to hire attorney experts in the vast […]

Olson v. Lesch: Will This Hard Case Make Bad Law?

Update (May 28, 2020): We’re going to chalk up the original post, below, as a “win,” that is, as a successful prediction. It’s a bit of a stretch on our part because we did not specifically predict the outcome but we did suggest that a fair analysis would result in the outcome that did, in […]

A Quick Note on Police Brutality

In 2017, LEVENTHAL pllc (and Burns Law Firm PLLC) represented Mr. Lamar Ferguson, the victim of police officers’ excessive force (in our view), one of whom was Officer Tou Thao (the Complaint is linked here). Officer Thao was terminated today for his role in the death of George Floyd, who was effectively strangled by the […]

Attorney Misconduct at Trial

May 22, 2020 Update: We have covered the Kedrowski v. Lycoming lawsuit for years now. It is a lawsuit over a small plane crash case that resulted terrible physical injuries to the pilot and a $27 million jury verdict. In our most recent post (below) we questioned how courts could find that attorney misconduct infected […]

Adverse Possession: Change OCEAN to OCTANE?

At a minimum in order to pass the bar and get a law license, it is possible that almost every U.S. lawyer over the past 100 years or so has had to learn the acronym “OCEAN” to remember the prerequisites for a claim for adverse possession (Open, Continuous, Exclusive, Adverse, Notorious). The Minnesota Supreme Court […]

“An astonishing demonstration of arrogant petulance”

The linked recent sanctions order from U.S. Mag. Judge Katherine M. Menendez (D. Minn.) is a scalding, withering, and lacerating indictment of defendants and one of their lawyers, in particular. Hit up pp. 31-33 for a list of “the most egregious examples” of misconduct by Chicago-based lead defense counsel, Alexander Loftus. Massive red flags surfaced […]