As the youngest contributor to this blog, who graduated from college not so long ago, I think it’s safe to assume that, among my fellow Minnesota Litigator colleagues, I’m the most recent attendee of a fraternity party (hopefully). For the unfamiliar, these parties follow a standard formula: a fraternity house, cheap and abundant liquor (see […]

The previous two day’s posts on Minnesota Litigator have concerned two Minnesota judges sanctioning two lawyers in two separate cases (here and here). Reputation will be the key metric of the future, Quora founder and Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo recently told Om Malik, himself an influential intellect who runs a widely read blog called Gigaom. […]

It is an 18-page stinging rebuke from U.S. District Court Mag. Judge Jeffrey J. Keyes of Bowman & Brooke lawyer, C.J. Schoenwetter, and his client (Golden Living Center Chief Legal Officer David Beck). Golden Living Center obtained documents subject to a protective order in a lawsuit in United States District Court that expressly provided that […]

Update (March 27, 2013): This month, the Minnesota Supreme Court denied Twin Cities law firm Fredrikson & Byron’s petition for review of the underlying adverse decision of the Minnesota Court of Appeals discussed below.   Original post (December 27, 2012):  For many years, Twin Cities-based Dorsey & Whitney, L.L.P. has had the benefit of deep […]

Update (March 26, 2013):  BOOM.  This has to have hurt.  A plaintiffs’ ERISA class action goes down hard.  I guess that is what appeals are for but, of course, more often than not, those fail too. Update (July 24, 2012):  The battle goes on…(This week, the putative plaintiff’s class moved for class certification.) Original post […]

Update (March 25, 2013): The post below concludes with the question of whether one side’s slip-up (that is, an inadvertent disclosure) would ultimately be insignificant when set against the opposite side’s response to the slip-up (that is, a defiant and foot-dragging response). It is too early to tell whether the recipient of the inadvertent disclosure […]

Link Snacks, Inc., the makers of JACK LINK’S brand beef jerky, has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the district of Minnesota (federal court, that is) alleging that 100 anonymous eBay users have sold counterfeit coupons and violating their trademarks. Link Snacks has also filed a motion for early discovery. Will […]

Self-Devouring Snake

OK.  But eighty-nine boxes of attorneys’ notes (see Item No. 4, page 2)?! 89 boxes??? And I thought I showed symptoms of logorrhea, a devastating diagnosis that some believe is rampant in the legal profession…

The Minnesota Legislature granted immortality to “stored value” “gift cards” and such in 2007.  If Holiday Companies gas stations sell car washes through paper receipts, good for 30 days, do they run afoul of the Minnesota law?  Now retired Hennepin County Judge Deborah Hedlund ruled: No.  The Court of Appeals reversed.  In recent days, Minnesota […]

All lawyers learns this legal maxim early on in their legal education.  What makes particular cases “hard”?  What makes them particularly hazardous springboards for change in the law?  These are not easy questions and there is no single answer. But I would suggest that where certain conduct in society once invisible becomes visible, where acts […]