Update (January 13, 2015): Over two years later and the antitrust case, discussed below, is on trial before a jury in St. Paul this week. U.S. District Court Judge Susan R. Nelson (D. Minn.) issued a written order on motions in limine on Monday. Here’s my blogger’s dilemma: let’s say a public (but hard to obtain) judicial decision […]
Update #2 (1/12/2015): Check out a trial management order for a very big trial scheduled for March in U.S. District Court (D. Minn.) before U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank. There are quite a few interesting aspects of the order for Minnesota civil litigators but here are a few things that come to my […]
In the seventh installment of “These are a few of my favorite things” (TAAFOMFT) in which Minnesota Litigator engages in the art of whining + irony, we touch on the sometimes punishingly slow rotation of the wheels of justice. I am not talking about the sometimes extremely long wait between the argument of a motion (or appeal) and […]
Lawyers are often mocked for the way they parse words. They are often regarded as word weasels who flim-flam to make the obvious obscure. But when the Minnesota rules of civil procedure require a motion to vacate a default judgment to be “made” within one year of when a judgment was entered, what does “made” mean? Does […]
A Minnesota Litigator reader passed on the linked complaint because it is remarkably strange. In fact, it is the strangest complaint I have ever seen written by a lawyer. In it, one Minnesota lawyer brings suit against another Minnesota lawyer, his former partner, in connection with what appears to be the disintegration of their law firm.There […]
Regular Minnesota Litigator readers will note my recurrent interest in “reputation,” “lawyering,” and the marketing of legal services. It is still on my mind. We do not know whether 2014 was a good year or a bad year for particular Minneapolis law firms. We do not know whether a firm’s “good year” means that the firm […]
Jim Hammerand of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal does it again and beats the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press on the story of Mike Ciresi leaving Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi to form Ciresi & Conlin with Jan Conlin and Katie Crosby Lehmann. I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with these three great […]
Judge Ann Montgomery (D. Minn.) tackled this interesting question on a recent motion to dismiss in the case of Stepan v. Bloomington Burrito Group, LLC, No. 14-CV-03288 (ADM/TNL) (D. Minn. Dec. 22, 2014). Plaintiffs sued the Mexican-themed fast-food restaurant where they had worked for reverse discrimination, claiming they were fired because none of them was Hispanic or […]
In August, 2012, Minnesota lawyer, Kim Chapman, sued Minnesota lawyer, John Bonner, and her former employer Bonner & Borhart. Apparently her lawsuit got the attention of the U.S. Department of Labor and then the Hennepin County Attorney. Now Bonner has been convicted in a criminal trial for stealing money from Bonner & Borhart lawyer-employees. He […]
Update (January 2, 2015): U.S. District Court Judge Joan N. Ericksen began her opinion granting Defendant Gem Shopping Network’s motion for summary judgment by noting a claim in the case that Defendant told Plaintiff Ann Klinge about someone who sold “‘a stone here and a stone there’ to ‘stay afloat’.” But then, on New Year’s Eve, […]