Minnesota Lawyer

There has been intense pressure to, once again, pass police-policy reform. The House is fully on board with such proposals. But with one minor exception, the Senate is not.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has disbarred an attorney for engaging in a self-dealing scheme that funneled funds from a client’s trust into five start-up businesses that never made any money.

There has been a flurry of floor activity in the House and Senate over the last few weeks, so it seems a good time to catch up on some bills that might interest lawyers.

A breach-of-contract civil suit commenced as soon as the appellant answered the original summons, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled. That’s true even though the appellant failed to return an acknowledgment-of-service form.

Our review of issues in state and national news, with a rotating cast of political people in the know.

University of Minnesota Law School Professor Michael Tonry hopes the book he is writing will offer a new account of the forces that have made the American justice system “systematically unjust, unprecedentedly severe and largely indifferent to defendants’ and offenders’ human dignity.”

Foreshadowing friction likely to be repeated over the coming days, racial tensions went briefly but fully on display Monday, as virtual public safety-judiciary conference committee hearings launched.

Julia Dayton Klein is Hennepin County’s new District Court judge. The governor’s office announced her appointment on April 28.

The University of Minnesota School of Law is honoring one of its most distinguished alumni, both in physical space and online.

A start date for the joint House-Senate judiciary and public safety committee hearing has finally been set. It begins Monday, May 3, at 9 a.m.