What do you do when you have a judgment and need to collect? Well, for many creditors and collection agencies, the man to call is John Halpern, a 40-year veteran of commercial collections in the Twin Cities. Minnesota Litigator sat down for an interview where he gave some of his strategies for stopping debtors from […]

It is widely known that almost all civil litigation ends in settlement and so the momentous culmination of a lawsuit with jury verdict is exceptional. Even when a dispute, against the odds, goes to trial and the jury renders a verdict, the case almost NEVER ends there.  Prominent Minnesota businessman, Irwin Jacobs, celebrated a $10 […]

“Let me check with my client to make sure everything is Kosher.” I have heard this phrase, or some similar iteration, countless times to make sure certain terms or conditions were acceptable or legitimate, but never to make sure something was actually Kosher. It looks like some local lawyers are going to have to do just […]

A post from new Minnesota Litigator contributing poster, immigration lawyer, Mikael Merrissa, with his perspective on President Obama’s recent executive order related to federal immigration policy: Earlier this month, President Obama issued an executive order putting a stop to the deportation of young illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children. This change in […]

Update (June 26, 2012):  Minnesota Litigator is sad to note that the subject of the posts below, Amanda Tatro, was found dead this morning at the age of 31.   The City Pages article was inconclusive as to the cause of death.   Update (June 20, 2012): (For background, see original post after the break) […]

Mikael Merissa was born in Lalibella, Ethiopia. He grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He is a 1994 graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and received his Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2003. During law school, Mike worked at the American Civil […]

Plaintiff Jeffrey Veches, represented by well-known plaintiff’s counsel, Jill Clark, alleged that he got in a car accident as he was en route to the pharmacy for treatment for his vasovagal syncope (“fainting”) (next time, consider a cab?).  A Minneapolis police officer, showing up on the scene after an accident and suspecting Veches of drunk driving, […]

From time to time, things don’t work out in litigation and cutting that check to the lawyers who were not as successful as hoped is sometimes unbearable for unhappy clients.  Their disappointment is obviously understandable (and in some cases justified) but stiffing the litigator can have undesirable, if predictable, ramifications.  You face a heightened risk […]

Dayle Nolan of the Larkin Hoffman law firm represents Minnesota citizens’ elected representatives, the Minnesota Senate, in particular, defending the lawmakers from claims of wrongful termination by Michael Broadkorb, who was fired suddenly in December after it was revealed Republican Majority Leader Amy Koch was having an affair with a staffer (widely thought to have been […]

The Court of Appeals recently issued a decision holding that a person’s front yard is not a “public place” under a statute making it a crime to carry a gun without a permit in a public place.  In State v. Yang, someone called 911 after seeing the defendant carrying a gun at his house.  Police went […]