Update: It’s a time of transition. The Twins season is winding down. And the Minnesota Supreme Court is issuing the last of its decisions from the past term. Two important decisions were just released: Gams and Cole. These cases decide how two rules mesh – rule 5.04(a) and rule 60.02. Rule 5.04(a) was amended […]
Minnesota has long followed the hip pocket rule: a civil action is started when it is served. A recent change to the requirements has tweaked that rule. Now an action must also be filed within a year or it is “deemed dismissed.” What if a plaintiff misses that deadline and the action is dismissed? Can […]
The Minnesota Supreme Court is considering an array of proposed amendments to the court rules. Many are occasioned by the move to e-filing and digital court records. One new rule will make everything easier. It will simply require that all documents filed be consecutively numbered. So, for example, an affidavit with exhibits will have to […]
It’s not that people won’t be able to represent themselves anymore! It’s just that under proposed amendments to the court rules, they will be called something different. Instead of being “pro se parties” or “unrepresented parties,” they will be called: “self-represented litigants.” New rules of civil procedure will change the term “unrepresented party” to […]
In a recent per curiam decision, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped a bit away from Twombly and Iqbal. Twombly and Iqbal tightened pleading standards for federal court cases. Taken together, Twombly and Iqbal rejected the Conley v. Gibson standard, which said that a complaint was viable unless it appeared beyond doubt that the plaintiff […]
Should Minnesota courts adopt Twombly/Iqbal standards for pleading? That’s the question the Minnesota Supreme Court considered last week The pleading standard lawyers all learned in law school was Conley v. Gibson. That said, a complaint was viable unless it appeared beyond doubt that the plaintiff could prove no set of facts entitling him or her to relief. […]
U.S. District Court Judge Joan Ericksen (D. Minn.) has built a bit of a local reputation for strict adherence to 28 U.S.C. § 1332 and admonishing counsel that fail to plead diversity of citizenship correctly (see, for example, here and here). Recently, Judge Ericksen again called out an attorney that “did not properly allege the citizenships of all the […]