Arriving in a cheap hotel at the edge of a cold desolate western town late at night, an experienced railroad defense lawyer found herself checking in next to her adversary, the lawyer for an injured railroad worker.

Such lawyers criss-cross the country, inspecting gruesome accident sites, deposing accident victims, witnesses, doctors, family members, and so on.  These lawyers are cogs in a system designed to transform (or, when appropriate, to reject the proposed transformation of) personal injuries into money as fairly and efficiently as possible.

“Where you coming from?” one might say to the other.  ”Spokane.  Arm-off,” the other might reply.  By their professional roles, they are desensitized.  A catastrophic event in some person’s life is summed up in this succinct, if insensitive, professional jargon.   Continue reading →

On VentureBeat, Minnesota Litigator noted the survey/ad below today from Twin Cities powerhouse law firm (and alma mater) Dorsey & Whitney LLP. The page also had an ad for Greenberg Traurig.  Seems like a new rain-making strategy.

Notwithstanding that the citation of foreign sources is deemed by some to be controversial, Case Management Master D.E. Short of the Superior Court of Justice – Ontario has gone out on a limb and honored Minnesota Litigator with a mention at p.7 of the linked opinion, citing Minnesota Litigator’s discussion last October of the adage, “a bad settlement is better than a good trial.”

Citation in a Canadian judicial decision!  One more thing to check off my bucket list!

Update:  The U.S. Supreme Court decided this week to take a pass on a few cases dealing with the internet and the First Amendment.

But all hope is not lost for a Jordan (“Pro for the Protester“) Kushner constitutional law repeat victory as the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear argument in “the trocar-wielding student case” (see original post after the jump regarding scary Facebook posts that resulted in punishment by the University of Minnesota) on February 8 in reviewing the Court of Appeals case that went against Amanda Tatro, Kushner’s client.  The issues:

(1) whether the University of Minnesota violated Tatro’s constitutional rights to free speech by imposing disciplinary sanctions for her Facebook posts; (2) whether the University had the authority to conduct a disciplinary hearing and impose sanctions that included changing a passing grade to a failing grade; and (3) whether the University presented sufficient evidence to support a determination that Tatro committed disciplinary offenses.  (University of Minnesota Office for Student Conduct & Academic Integrity)

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Long-time readers of Minnesota Litigator may recall reference to a case concerning the common paradox of commercial litigants both arguing that a contract is “unambiguous” with diametrically opposed explanations.

This was a case where the declaratory judgment plaintiff won before U.S. District Court Judge Ann D. Montogomery (D. Minn.) but its request for award of attorneys’ fees was postponed.  Now the landlord can tack on $45,000+ onto its tenant’s rent, owed due to AMC Showplace Theatre’s litigation loss.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed Judge Montgomery’s ruling in favor of Block E landlord, Camelot.  (StarTribune coverage is here.)

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are in business to make money by providing medicine, treatments, or devices that promote health, of course.  It would take a profound cynicism on the one hand (if one were to argue they do not wish to promote health) or profound idealism on the other hand (if one were to argue they do not care about making money) to quibble with that basic proposition.

But then how “safe” do their products have to be so they can avoid being demonized as venal, callous, and subject to punitive damages, because sometimes their products might not always work and they may even sometimes cause harm or illness? Continue reading →

Jarndyce and Jarndyce, as retired U.S. District Court Judge James M. Rosenbaum (D. Minn.) once cautioned me at an initial appearance in his chambers, was the fictional court case described in Dickens’ novel “Bleak House” that has become synonymous with interminable litigation.   Within the world of single-plaintiff employment cases, the matter of Leticia Zuniga Escamilla v. SMS Holdings Corp., Service Mgmt Sys. Inc., and Marco Gonzalez venued in Federal District Court here in Minneapolis may be achieving such notoriety.

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Lawyers, and many businesses small and large around the world, of course, are increasingly connecting with their “customers” via the internet.

There can be a murky ether between buyers and sellers in the amorphous and indistinct cloud that is the internet.  Increasingly, by accident or design, there can be third-party interference between buyers and sellers. Continue reading →

In July of 2008, a complaint was brought against several companies by a whistle-blower under the Federal False Claims Act, alleging that hard disk manufacturers were falsely representing their products sold to the U.S. government as made in the U.S.A. when, in fact, they were made overseas.

For reasons unknown to Minnesota Litigator, here we are over three years later and the defendants are just now responding to the (since amended) complaint (with motions to dismiss).   Continue reading →

When most people think of Minnesota, they think of cold winters, Scandinavian heritage, “the state of hockey,” and so on, but when human resources professionals or mental health professionals nationwide think of Minnesota, they think of the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) (or maybe Hazelden?).

The MMPI has been a basic staple in the “reality check” medicine cabinet for about 80 years.  If, however, the MMPI were available on-line for all to see, this could complicate or destroy its diagnostic power.   Continue reading →

A unanimous Supreme Court today confirmed what a number of Courts of Appeal have held over the years:  the First Amendment prohibits certain employees of Church organizations from suing for employment discrimination.

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Ask Larry Craig, he’ll vouch for that.

Other evidence supporting the subject line’s proposition: this week Sr. U.S. District Court Judge Richard H. Kyle (D. Minn.) filed a “Suggestion of Remand” to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (the “JPML“), requesting that the “body odor won’t go away no matter what you say” (A.L.S. Enterprises consumer fraud class action) cases be returned to the far-flung district courts from which they were collected.

For years, Minnesota Litigator has heard experienced trial lawyers say that lawsuits subject to federal multi-district consolidation, once consolidated, never get remanded.  (Most cases, that is, are settled at some point after consolidation and before remand.)  Never say never.

If the JPML accepts Judge Kyle’s suggestion to remand, this might be particularly vexing to defendants in the case since they have a pending dispositive motion before Judge Kyle which they had surely been hoping would definitively kill these cases off in the Twin Cities…