MinnLawyer Blog

In the spirit of the day, here are a couple of great presidential Inaugural Address moments:   “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.” [...]

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We know instinctively that a simple mistake is different from misconduct. A child who spills milk doesn’t get a punishment, but one who lights the cat’s tail on fire does. What about when it’s a prosecutor in a criminal case making those mistakes or engaging in misbehavior?  In other words, when is the state only being human? [...]

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At a press conference at the State Capitol last Wednesday, members of the Coalition to Preserve Minnesota’s Justice System, including Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Eric Magnuson, painted a pretty dire picture for the state’s justice system if a proposed 10 percent budget cut should be enacted. (Click here for story from Minnesota Lawyer; click here for more info [...]

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It’s time once again for the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers‘ annual dinner and “not-so-silent” auction. The big event is being held March 7, 2009, at the Town and Country Club in St. Paul. The silent and live auction proceeds help fund MACDL’s trial school scholarship and its lobbying efforts, which include helping to [...]

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A potentially very interesting lawsuit is presented by the case of the 51-year-old Hayward, Wis., electrician who froze to death while sleepwalking barefoot in his underwear in subzero temperatures. The Star Tribune reports that Timothy Brueggeman had a history of insomnia and was a known user of Ambien. Ambien, as you probably recall, is the drug [...]

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In times of a struggling economy, it’s interesting to note which industries (and which segments of industries) end up benefiting. Minnesota Lawyer recently ran an article about how debt-collection attorneys are seeing an uptick in their workload as consumer credit-based suits rise in number. Apparently, another practice area that’s recently become hot is workplace litigation, [...]

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It’s official. The sour economy has hit the paralegal job market in Minnesota. I just got back from an interview with Minnesota Paralegal Association president Lori Boris, who works as a paralegal at Foley & Mansfield. In the course of our conversation, she  told me that job opportunities listed on the MPA’s website, which had [...]

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This just in from the courts:  The  Coalition to Preserve Minnesota’s Justice System will hold a press conference Wednesday, January 14, at 1:30 p.m. in Room 181 of the State Office Building to express members’ concerns about the impact of additional funding cuts to the justice system. Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson formed the coalition [...]

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Yesterday, graduates from the Hennepin County Drug Court celebrated their successful completion of a 12-month program led by judges Toddrick Barnette (at left in photo) and Peter Cahill (right). The 23 graduates, along with their families, friends, probation officers and staff listened to Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson (center) remark in his address [...]

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