Minnesota Lawyer articles from May 2003

Minnesota Lawyer archives from May 2003

Editorial: What is the price of justice?(Column)
May 5, 2003... Byline: Mark Cohen Never has it been more important for members of the Minnesota legal community to make their voices heard on the issue of court funding than it is in the current budget debate. With a multi-billion-dollar deficit...

'New York Times' calls Rosenbaum inquiry a 'witch hunt'.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter An editorial printed in the New York Times last week referred to Congress' demands for U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Rosenbaum's files and notes in his sentencing decisions as a Kafkaesque...

Court cases give guests greater privacy protection.
May 5, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick It's been nearly five years since the Minnesota Supreme Court first recognized the common law right of privacy in Lake v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 581 N.W.2d 231 (Minn. 1998). While Minnesota was late to adopt...

Prosecutors unhappy former judge let into Challenge Incarceration Program.(Column)
May 5, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones The Hennepin County Attorney's office reacted with frustration last week to the news that former Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Roland Amundson may get as much as 28 months shaved off his sentence for theft by...

Court funding bills head to conference committee.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The issue of state funding for the courts and Legal Aid is headed for a conference committee after the House and Senate passed separate bills, both of which seek to cut spending by a smaller amount...

Tortfeasor can offset verdict with payment by insurer.(Minnesota Court of Appeals decision)
May 5, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones Where a tortfeasor's insurer reimbursed the victim's insurer $46,439 for payments it made to the victim, the tortfeasor is entitled to offset that amount from a subsequent verdict entered against him, the Court of...

Commentary: The importance of accurate quotations in trial.
May 5, 2003... Byline: Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility Law students learn certain basic rules of professional conduct early in their studies. Lawyers may not knowingly present false evidence. Lawyers may not knowingly make a false statement...

Continuing legal ed. seminar examines how to avoid some common appellate errors.
May 5, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore The Ramsey County Bar Association recently presented practitioners with ways to preserve the record for appeal, as well as pointers for avoiding some of the more frequent mistakes made in the appellate arena. The...

Traffic stop didn't justify drug search of passenger.
May 5, 2003... Byline: Mark Cohen Evidence of drug possession obtained during a routine traffic stop for speeding and driving with a cracked windshield must be suppressed, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled. The court found that even though the...

Ramsey County Bar Assn. to honor local leaders for Law Day.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter In celebration of Law Day, the Ramsey County Bar Association (RCBA) will award Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity president and executive director...

MN Legal Briefs May 5, 2003.(announces various Minnesota law firm appointments and awards)
May 5, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Moss & Barnett has announced the addition of three new attorneys: Jerrie M. Hayes, Kelli A. Enders and Jana A. Deach. Hayes joins the litigation practice group and will counsel clients on general and...

Former Ramsey County public defender to receive award.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Former Ramsey County public defender William E. Falvey will receive the 2003 Douglas K. Amdahl Public Attorney Career Achievement Award on Friday, May 16. The award is presented by the Minnesota...

Legislative budget debate goes down to the wire.
May 12, 2003... Byline: Ember Reichgott Junge With the legislative session in the home stretch, funding plans to finance the state's courts, corrections, public safety and criminal justice still differ greatly between the Republican-controlled House and...

Commentary: Justice for all.(Brief Article)
May 12, 2003... Byline: Mark Cohen With the legislative session drawing to a close, the budget debate has taken center stage. With Minnesota facing a multi-billion-dollar deficit, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislators will have to make some tough choices. In...

Med-mal claim accrued when heart attack occurred.
May 12, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones The family of a man who suffered a fatal heart attack after a racquetball game could bring a wrongful death action against a doctor who told the man seven years earlier that his congenital heart condition did not...

Wrongful conception claim can proceed.
May 12, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore Where the defendant physicians failed to diagnose and inform the plaintiff that she was a carrier of a harmful genetic condition and she proceeded to have a child with disabilities resulting from that condition, the...

MN Legal Briefs May 12, 2003.(includes several articles)(Brief Article)
May 12, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter On May 1, Arc Hennepin-Carver presented its 2002 Founders Award to Luther Granquist of the Minnesota Disability Law Center (MDLC). The award honors an individual who works to establish a community...

Commentary: High court perceives punishment: Three cases are out.
May 12, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick The nature, degree and justification for punishment often inspire the musing of moralists. Those considerations also are at the heart of many legal issues addressed by the courts. The concept that the...

Harassment cases clogging state District Court dockets.
May 12, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore The number of harassment cases filed in the state has been steadily rising over the past several years. While court personnel believe that the harassment law is necessary, the abuse of the law has become a source of...

Nonprofit honors Hennepin County Medical Center doctors.(WATCH honored Drs. Linda Thompson and Marjorie Hogan )(Brief Article)
May 19, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter WATCH, a nationally recognized nonprofit that has been monitoring domestic violence and sexual assault cases in Hennepin County for 10 years, honored Drs. Linda Thompson and Marjorie Hogan from the...

Defendant in DWI case denied right to counsel.
May 19, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore Where the state failed to produce evidence as to why a police dispatcher denied an intoxicated driver access to an attorney, the defendant's right to counsel was not vindicated prior to his submitting to...

Know your rights under the SEC's global settlement.
May 19, 2003... Byline: James Eccleston $1.4 billion. That's what the major brokerage firms will pay in a most historic settlement. Investors now know at least part of the reason why they have lost money in the stock markets - fraud, deception and...

Commentary: Constitutional cases consider air and water travel.
May 19, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick Minnesotans are a mobile people. Their mobility occasionally evokes legal disputes. The issues usually arise in civil lawsuits, but a couple of recent decisions issued concurrently by the Minnesota Court of...

Commentary: Is law school relevant to the practice of law?
May 19, 2003... Byline: Neil Hamilton Some lawyers comment that what a student learns in law school is not very relevant to the practice of law. I disagree for two reasons. First, what a law student learns in law school is highly relevant to obtaining...

Identity of cops in racial profiling study not public data.
May 19, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones The St. Paul Police Department is not required to release to the press the names of officers who made traffic stops in a racial profiling study because the names are private personnel data, the Court of Appeals has...

High court reviewing $535K emotional harm award to employer.(Minnesota Supreme Court case)
May 19, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore The state Supreme Court is reviewing a Rice County jury's award of $535,000 to an employer on a counterclaim against an employee who had charged it with discrimination, breach of contract and various other claims. ...

Lawmakers change joint and several threshold.
May 19, 2003... Byline: Mark Cohen While the defense bar applauded legislation passed last week that will raise the threshold for joint and several liability in Minnesota, plaintiffs' lawyers expressed shock and outrage at a bill they say will "gut" dram...

Commentary: Joint and several bill victimizes tort victims, taxpayers.(Letter to the Editor)
May 19, 2003... Byline: Letter to the Editor To the Editor: Editor's Note: The following submission was written by plaintiffs' attorney Bill Harper of Woodbury to express his reaction to the joint and several liability bill passed by the Legislature...

MN Legal Briefs May 26, 2003.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Civil Liberties Union Robert J. (Bob) King, Jr. has joined Lommen, Nelson, Cole & Stageberg, P.A. as a shareholder. King will continue his practice in the areas of personal injury, products liability, aviation accidents...

Minnesota's Innocence Project names chairman, secretary.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Minneapolis attorney Ed Magarian has been named Innocence Project of Minnesota's chairman of the board. In this position, Magarian will provide leadership to the board of directors who set the...

Ramsey County Bar Association honors Justice Paul Anderson.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul H. Anderson was presented the Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award by the Ramsey County Bar Association (RCBA) at its 2003 Annual Meeting on May 15 at the...

MSBA Public Law Section lauds attorneys and judges.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The Minnesota State Bar Association Public Law Section recently named its Public Attorney Award Recipients. The Douglas K. Amdahl Attorney Career Achievement Award was given to three individuals...

District can be sued over cleric's sex misconduct.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones Constitutional protections on the free exercise of religion do not prohibit the District Court from hearing negligence and vicarious liability claims against the regional head of a church arising out of a pastor's...

Minnesota Legislature cuts court funding, increases fees.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The state Legislature last week passed a budget bill that cuts court funding by 3 percent. The measure also raises a variety of court fees. For example, the fee on appeals will double from $250...

Judge suppresses evidence from unlawful search.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter A Hennepin County District Court judge recently ordered suppressed evidence obtained by police during an unlawful consent search. A police officer stopped the defendant when he was observed...

Fraud tolls limitations period for jewelry theft.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore Where homebuyers concealed the fact that they had discovered jewelry belonging to the seller in a wall safe in their newly purchased home, the seller was not time-barred from bringing a claim for conversion 12 years...

Minnesota's chief justice makes statement on court funding bill.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The Minnesota Judicial Branch recognizes that these are difficult economic times for the State of Minnesota. Under the legislation passed this week, Minnesota citizens can expect the budget cut to...

Mankato newspaper entitled to data on firing of county employee.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter A judge says The Free Press of Mankato is entitled to information on Blue Earth County's firing of its former land records supervisor. In his ruling last week, Brown County District Court Judge...

Must insurance company cover claim against insured for sexual abuse of child?
May 26, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Is an insured who claims that mental illness deprived him of his ability to control his own actions entitled to coverage under his liability policy for sexual-abuse claims brought against him? ...

Business judgment rule applies to nonprofits.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Mark Cohen In a case of first impression, the Minnesota Supreme Court last week ruled that nonprofit corporations can appoint an independent committee to decide whether to join a shareholder's derivative suit and that a nonprofit...

Commentary: Courts ponder whether young can benefit from ADEA.
May 26, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick The federal and state laws prohibiting age discrimination in employment were originally targeted at actions by employers reflecting bias against older employees. But similar to many other antidiscrimination laws,...