Judge James M. Rosenbaum is known to occasionally wield the pen as a sword (or, in Minnesotan spirit and consistent with his metaphor of attorneys as remoras, as a fish gutting knife?). Judge Rosenbaum’s recent response to a request for attorneys’ fees in the UHG class action litigation cut deeply. He denied the request for […]

A graph of the income stream of a professional athlete generally starts with a spike and then has a fairly swift drop and, if a player is good and lucky, has a long tail. The average length of an NFL career is three seasons or so. Video clips of particular plays will be watched and […]

Last March, in regard to a product liability case concerning a recall of a crib with a defective dropside, this blog suggested a pending Eighth Circuit case, if it went the plaintiffs’ way, would signal a dramatic change in Eighth Circuit law, but went on to predict that plaintiffs would lose. Today, the proverbial “other […]

For quite a few years, trial courts’ consideration of whether or not to certify a class of certain kinds of putative class action claims (securites fraud, consumer class actions, certain employment class actions, environmental cases, mass accidents) have been perfunctory, at best. Many plaintiffs in such cases have intoned the requirements of Rule 23 of […]

The O’Neils bought a crib for their grand-children, which they used without incident for four years. The crib was then recalled due to a hardware defect, which could cause a gap in the crib gate and pose a risk of injury or death to infants. After the recall, a retrofit was made available for purchasers. […]

As a rule this blog focuses on Minnesota law but some cases outside the jurisdiction are of such importance that they are worth noting. In re American Express Merchants’ Litigation, Docket No. 06-1871 (2nd Circuit, January 30, 2009) is such a decision. In a Sherman antitrust class action claim brought against American Express by merchants, […]

Lester v. Novastar Financial Corp., 8th Cir. Civ. File No. 8452WM (oral argument, 1/16/09) The Eighth Circuit has upheld the dismissal of several securities fraud class actions over the past two years. How will they react to the dismissal of a fraud claim against a subprime lender? The allegations in the class action plaintiffs complaint […]

Mirfashi v. Fleet Mortgage Corp., U.S. Ct. of Appeals, 7th Circuit, Case No. 07-3402 In a typical Posner opinion (offering a definition of chutzpah and concluding with a one-sentence paragraph: “This case is finito,” for example), the Court of Appeals (7th Cir.) considers a more common scenario than some might think: how much is the […]