The term “hostile environment” has permeated employment litigation over the past several years. The term is used to describe the type of workplace relationships that ...
Read More »Desperately seeking sanctions: fee awards sliced
Seeking attorney’s fee awards has become somewhat of a cottage industry for litigators in Minnesota. (See Perspectives “Attorney Sanctions: No Hindsight, Delayed Oversight” Minnesota Lawyer, ...
Read More »Decisions demonstrate dislike of defaults
Courts generally abhor defaults. The preference for cases to be adjudicated on the merits, rather than by default, is of long-standing tradition in Minnesota. (See ...
Read More »Lenders’ loans loom large in litigation lately
“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend.” — W. Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. iii. 75 Lenders lie perilous ...
Read More »Appeals address adjacent automobile aspects
The action, and occasionally the inaction, of drivers of motor vehicles often give rise to liability in Minnesota in both civil and criminal contexts. Occasionally, ...
Read More »Res judicata: no déja vu all over again
The recount in Florida in the presidential election reminded many of the practice of kids in sandlot games known as “do-over,” referring to the penchant ...
Read More »Competing considerations cloud noncompete cases
Noncompete clauses “constitute a form of industrial peonage without redeeming virtue in the American enterprise system.” Eutectic Welding Alloys Corp v. West, 281 Minn. 13, ...
Read More »Mall suits: litigation at America’s favorite shopping site
The Mall of America in Bloomington has become, in its short eight years of existence, one of the country’s most popular venues for shoppers and ...
Read More »Decisions demonstrate difficulties deciding duty
“Duty is what one expects from others; it is not what one does one’s self.” —Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance(1893) The concept of ...
Read More »Money matters: determining, distributing damages
“The term ‘damages’ means a sum of money that will fairly compensate a person …” —JIG 151 Litigants and their lawyers frequently face the problem ...
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