Minnesota Litigator is now officially on hiatus until the New Year. 2011 has been an excellent year for Minnesota Litigator!  Over 18,000 unique visitors, about 35,000 visits, and, perhaps most importantly, ever-increasing time spent by readers on the site!  THANK YOU!!! Minnesota Litigator’s wishes for the year to come?  More of the same!  Please keep […]

The University of Minnesota sued on four patents related to a device used for repairing heart defects (an “occluder,” roughly a “hole-blocker” (here is an image of one kind of occluder).  The U of M occluder looks like two umbrellas facing one another, attached at their center-points.  The occluder gets snaked through a catheter into […]

Update (December 21, 2011):  Witness A denies having given a statement about an accident but plaintiff’s investigating lawyer is discovered to have written, “Witness A Statement (first draft).”  Turns out the witness had handwritten a statement, after all, which was eventually produced.  Does the defendant get to take the deposition of the investigating lawyer on […]

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal discusses an emerging area of family law that has little law to guide practitioners.  Family law attorneys typically have plenty of experience dividing property and fostering agreements regarding children; dealing with frozen embryos, however, is another matter entirely. Recent years have seen breakthroughs in assisted reproductive technology and […]

Update #2 (December 20, 2011):  This legal malpractice case foundered on causation and the plaintiffs recovered nothing.  They have now been order to pay over $30,000 of the defendants’ costs (and, of course, had to pay their own costs, as well).  Meanwhile, plaintiffs seek reversal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.   […]

Large law firms have been shrinking for several years now.  Since 2008, over 10,000 large firm lawyers have been let go across the country.  Anecdotally, Minnesota Litigator understands that every job opening in a Twin Cities legal opportunity is deluged with interested applicants. At the same time, Minnesota Public Radio has a story about how rural […]

Any news-following Minnesotan is aware of the tragic attack yesterday in Grand Marais.  This is not the kind of “news and commentary” about Minnesota litigation that Minnesota Litigator is particularly equipped to cover but, on the other hand, it is sad news that cannot go without mention or notice. The challenges of rural legal practice […]

A recent decision by Senior Judge David Doty in an inflammatory racial discrimination case arising in the Red Wing public schools provides a good overview of claims that a student who has been harassed based on her race might bring against a school district and its officials, focuses attention on the little-known Title VI (not […]

Minnesota law provides for post-judgment interest on the unpaid balance of money judgments.  Until 2009, such interest was tied to the yield of one-year United States Treasury bills.  In 2009, however, the legislature changed the law.  Interest on judgments of $50,000 or less is still based on the yield of T-Bills; interest on judgments of […]

For more than five years, thousands of DWI convictions have been in limbo while defense attorneys and prosecutors argue whether the source code of alcohol breath test machines provide reliable results.  With a history of fierce disagreement between the two sides, resembling the drama of a heavyweight boxing match, the litigation came to the Minnesota […]