On the lighter side and not of a legal nature, Art Director Nicole’s Meyer’s project to design a logo for all the lakes in Minnesota — one a day so it should take about 27 years — is too cool to ignore.

If Minnesota Litigator had more time or had a trademark contributor to contrive a legal angle, we would.  Who out there can add Minnesota legal insight to lakes’n'logos? Anyone?  (Can one get a trademark on a lake?  Who owns Minnesota lakes?  Who owns lake-specific IP?  Who owns lake-naming rights?  How does that work?)

"Pay No Attention to the Man Behind The Curtain!"

Civil litigation, when you think about it, is, in a sense, the re-telling of stories.  Whether it is a car accident, a patented invention, a business transaction gone bad, or what have you, the job of trial lawyers, you might say, is to make sense of the events, to explain to a judge or jury what actually happened.

So, to what extent do we care about the evolving thought processes, scribbled notes, or drafts of trial counsel? They’re not normally at the accident scene or “at the scene of the crime at the time of the crime,” you might say (with a few very rare interesting exceptions).

Maybe trial lawyers should be the unseen medium through whom the story is told, and should not become the story itself?  Do we really care about the story-tellers, and their private thoughts and perspectives?  In fact, it seems we do care and care quite a lot. Continue reading →

All sophisticated businesses, litigants, and litigators, know that litigation, more often than not, is an extremely costly and inefficient problem-solving procedure, often far more fun to threaten than to actually participate in.  (Some cases highlighted last week seemed to make that point quite clearly (here and here)).

That said, when an adversary threatens litigation, this can trigger a race to the courthouse as each side hopes very much NOT to litigate but, in the event of litigation, would like to do so in a convenient forum.

What happens, then, when each side promises to “hold their fire” and one of the sides goes back on the deal and runs to court where it supposedly promised not to?  Can the other side dismiss the cad’s case?

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Two different FMLA plaintiffs fared very differently in cases decided last week.  In the first, Fries v. TRI Marketing Corp., U.S. District Court Judge Judge Joan Ericksen (D. Minn.) denied TRI’s motion for summary judgment and allowed Ms. Fries’ FMLA interference and retaliation claims to be heard by a jury.  In the second, Ballato v. Comcast Corp., the Eighth Circuit upheld a grant of summary judgment in favor of the employer by U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim (D. Minn.).

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Update (April 26, 2012):  ”The findings of the Court are against British [Confectionary Company, Ltd.,] and in no way directly or indirectly impugn the integrity, reputation or actions of British’s counsel.” (Report & Recommendation (“R&R”) at p.47)  With clients like these, who needs enemies?

U.S. Mag. Judge Tony N. Leung (D. Minn.) concludes the R&R, “Unfortunately for the parties, this perilous odyssey may not yet be finished…”

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Sr. U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty (D. Minn.) is no more pleased with Minnesota attorney William Butler than his colleague, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz (D. Minn.).

From time to time, Minnesota Litigator strays from its jurisdiction to nearby states and “Minnesota ties” are used as an excuse (like this recent example).

A Montana author “with Minnesota ties” represented by counsel from Dorsey & Whitney L.L.P., a law firm “with Minnesota ties” justifies a brief mention of the controversy pending in Montana courts spear-headed by well known Montana plaintiff’s lawyer Alexander “Zander” Blewett, III.  (To be precise, it appears that New York-based Dorsey partner, Jonathan Herman, represents the publisher Penguin U.S.A.) Continue reading →

Update (April 23, 2012):  U.S. law establishes many threshold defenses for “state actors” challenged with constitutional violations.  In Minnesota’s mean and angry Facebook post case, defendants, as promised, invoke them to defend against claims that officials of the Minnewaska School District violated a student’s constitutional rights by disciplining her for comments made on Facebook.  Defendants are also alleged to have asked her to give them her password so that school officials could review the student’s Facebook posts, which request is apparently alleged to violate the Fourth Amendment.  (Can they ask for the tiny key to a student’s adorable diary?)  Defendants’ memorandum in support of their motion to dismiss is here.  It is a useful primer for constitutional/civil rights cases against schools and school officials.

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Professor Dale Carpenter is a University of Minnesota Law Professor and author of Flagrant Conduct, the story of the landmark decision “Lawrence V. Texas” which decriminalized homosexuality in the United States.  He’s recently been on After Words/BookTV, the Diane Rehm Show, spoken at many other venues over the past few months, and his new book has received high praise from critics across the country.

Now you can hear him speak locally:

Date: Monday, April 23

Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Location: Mondale Hall
229-19th Avenue South Room 25 Subplaza Minneapolis, MN 55455

Governor Dayton’s website this past Friday announced that the Commission on Judicial Selection has recommended the following five candidates for three vacancies on the Hennepin County Bench: Martha Holton Dimick, Hilary Lindell Caligiuri, James Moore, Kathleen Sheehy, and Edward (Ned) Wahl.

Governor Dayton will have his work cut out for him to pick from this impressive array and there are some big shoes to fill with the retirements of Hennepin County Judges Beryl A. Nord, George F. McGunnigle, and Cara Lee Neville.