Minnesota Lawyer articles from September 2003

Minnesota Lawyer archives from September 2003

MN Legal Briefs: September 1, 2003.(includes multiple articles)
September 1, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Dorsey & Whitney LLP has announced that Thomas W. Tinkham will lead the firm's Minneapolis office as partner-in-charge. Tinkham, chair of the commercial litigation group and executive committee...

Ethics rules differ for lawyers in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
September 1, 2003... Byline: Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility Many lawyers licensed to practice in Minnesota also are licensed in Wisconsin. But differences between the laws and procedures of the two states must be mastered in order to practice in...

Eyewitness identification pilot program may come to Minnesota.
September 1, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones Significant changes in the way some jurisdictions conduct eyewitness identification procedures may be within view in Minnesota. A number of police chiefs in Hennepin County are interested in a pilot project using...

Ex-congressman David Minge at home in the MN Court of Appeals.
September 1, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore Court of Appeals Judge David Minge has been a member of the state's appellate bench for nearly 17 months now. The halls of the Minnesota Judicial Center undoubtedly seem tranquil to the former Congressman, who thrived...

Minnesota judges help bring justice to Kosovo.
September 1, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones One place in the world where the United Nations' presence generally is welcome is the courtrooms in Kosovo, a province of Serbia and Montenegro, where American judges are assisting the province's legal system under...

Labor Day: Union members lose 'fair' duty claims.
September 1, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick Labor unions and their members have much to celebrate as Minnesota and the rest of the nation commemorates the 109th anniversary of Labor Day. But unions have experienced hard times lately, as reflected in a...

MN Court of Appeals rules medical malpractice action for wrongful-death was timely.(Murphy v. Allina Health System, et al.)
September 1, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore A medical-malpractice action brought in February 2002 for the wrongful death of a woman who died in April 1998 was timely under the limitations period then in effect, the Court of Appeals has ruled. The decedent...

Minneapolis jury awards $2 million for attack on bar patron.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter A Minneapolis jury recently awarded $2 million to a former University of Nebraska football player for injuries he suffered during an attack two years ago outside a downtown bar. The Hennepin...

MD Legal Briefs September 8, 2003.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Officers were elected at the annual meeting of the Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association (MDLA) held recently in Duluth, Minn.: Leon Erstad, president; Steven R. Schwegman, vice president; Gregory P....

Commentary: Nationality claims rejected by appellate courts.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick Nationality is one of a multitude of protected categories under federal and state discrimination laws. Both Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act and its counterpart, the Minnesota Human Rights Act, prohibit...

Strained public defenders seek relief from high court.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones The budget ax hit the Office of the State Public Defender hard last legislative session, and the strain is showing. The office recently petitioned the high court for emergency relief from the large caseloads that it...

Rational-basis test applies to school immunity challenge.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones The constitutionality of a statute granting school districts immunity from tort liability if they are unable to procure insurance at a rate of $1.50 a student should be evaluated using a rational-basis test, the...

MCLU president says ranks are swelling in post-Sept. 11 world.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore With the second anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11 fast approaching, civil rights groups and civil liberties organizations across the country are hard at work, combating what they contend is an assault by...

Judge says defender co-pay scheme unconstitutional.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones A Hennepin County District Court last week declared unconstitutional a revenue-raising statute passed last legislative session that significantly raised the amount defendants have to pay as co-payments when...

Vehicle financing mistake nets $50 recovery.
September 8, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore Where a car dealership technically violated the Minnesota Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sales Act by not providing the buyer of a vehicle with a signed copy of the sales contract, and the buyer was not harmed by...

Openings posted for Minnesota's Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter One attorney member and one public member are being sought to fill vacancies commencing Feb. 1, 2004, on the 23-member Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board. The all-volunteer board is made up of...

U.S. Constitution Day recalls landmark Minnesota cases.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick This week is highlighted by Constitution Day, which falls on Sept. 17th. The day marks the 216th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution by the 12 state delegations that drafted the document, comprised...

Minn. Supreme Court rules that reporter must reveal unnamed sources.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones A reporter is not protected by a shield law from being compelled to reveal the identities of unnamed sources in a defamation lawsuit where neither he nor his newspaper are defendants and the information is relevant to...

Minnesota immigration lawyers say relief for their clients diminishing.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones At the two-year mark since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, lawyers who represent criminally charged and criminally convicted aliens are finding that the immigration-related relief they can obtain for their...

Hennepin County wraps up summer with several big public injury verdicts.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore The end of August saw several large personal injury jury verdicts in Hennepin County. The first of three million-dollar verdicts was on Aug. 20 when a jury awarded $2 million to a man who lost vision in an eye after...

Minn. Court of Appeals rules mortgages get priority over unrecorded mechanic's lien.(Langford Tool and Drill Co)
September 15, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones Where a physical inspection of property revealed that a construction project had been abandoned, unrecorded mechanic's liens incurred prior to the abandonment do not have priority over new financing incurred to...

Hennepin County District Court grants new trial because issue of permanency was not on verdict form.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter A Hennepin County District Court judge has granted a new trial to a plaintiff in a personal injury case because the issue of permanency was not submitted to the jury. The plaintiff was injured in an...

Standard for acts of prior abuse clarified in Minn. Court of Appeals ruling.
September 15, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore A District Court judge erred in admitting evidence of similar prior bad conduct in a domestic-abuse trial without first determining whether that conduct had been proved by clear and convincing evidence, the Court of...

Nat. Assn. of Securities Dealers clarifies issue of customers' eligibility for overcharge refunds.
September 15, 2003... Byline: James Eccleston Brokerage firms must issue refunds to customers for mutual fund commission overcharges, according to a National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) notice. However, unless a brokerage firm already knows of an...

Children's Law Center receives award from Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Children's Law Center (CLC) of Minnesota is the recipient of the Mission Award for Nonprofit Advocacy from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. The award recognizes advocacy as an effective and...

MN Legal Briefs: September 22, 2003.(Minnesota National Guard)
September 22, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Dorsey & Whitney LLP has announced that finance attorney Tom Joyce has joined the firm as a partner in the corporate practice group. Originally from Minnesota, Joyce has returned to the United States...

Commentary: Why Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is like Monopoly.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Amy Seidel On July 30, 2003, corporate America acknowledged the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Most executive officers and directors of public companies would agree that the last year was...

MN Supreme Court considers whether forfeiture of indigent woman's SUV was an excessive fine.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones The Minnesota Supreme Court is currently pondering the constitutionality of seizing an SUV from an indigent defendant for driving the vehicle while intoxicated. The defendant, who had a prior DWI conviction, was found...

MN Court of Appeals rules future medical expenses do constitute economic losses.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore A $2,135 award of future medical expenses was not subject to the tort threshold under the no-fault act because it constituted economic loss rather than noneconomic detriment, the Court of Appeals has ruled. The...

Minnesota State Bar Association's pro bono challenge moving ahead.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore When Minneapolis attorney James L. Baillie took over leadership of the Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA) this past summer, he vowed to make legal services to the disadvantaged a primary focus of his term. During...

California election recalls Minnesota removal law.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick The intense interest generated across the nation by the California gubernatorial recall election recently postponed by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals until March 2004 has been heightened by the...

MN Court of Appeals rules that church must pay father's maintenance obligation.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones A religious entity providing in-kind benefits to a church member who owes maintenance and child support may be ordered by a District Court judge to withhold the funds, and, if it fails to do so, may be ordered to pay...

Hennepin County District Court Chief Judge Kevin S. Burke receives William H. Rehnquist Award.(Brief Article)
September 22, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Hennepin County District Court Chief Judge Kevin S. Burke has been named recipient of the 2003 William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). One...

MN Supreme Court asks public defenders to clarify their request for court's help.
September 22, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The state Supreme Court has asked public defenders for more information to support their request for administrative relief from the crisis that they say has resulted from a lack of resources resulting...

Amended Minnesota No-fault Arbitration Rule takes effect in January.(Brief Article)
September 22, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Rule 10 of the Minnesota No-Fault Arbitration Rules, which sets forth qualifications for membership on an arbitration panel, has been amended by the Supreme Court and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2004,...

MN Legal Briefs: September 29, 2003.(Minnesota )
September 29, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Jason Kraus has joined Faegre & Benson L.L.P. as special counsel in the intellectual property practice. Kraus's practice focuses on patent portfolio management, U.S. and international patent...

Dakota County Jury awards $2.5M for death of elderly couple.(Brief Article)
September 29, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter A Dakota County jury has awarded $2.5 million to a Twin Cities family that two years ago lost its elderly parents in a tragic car accident. The victims, 74-year-old Robert Nipp, and his 71-year-old...

Legal practice and moral psychology in Minnesota.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Neil Hamilton Almost 30 years ago, building on the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, professor Jim Rest at the University of Minnesota first introduced the "Defining Issues Test" (DIT) of moral judgment development. Rest and professor...

Minnesota's Council on Crime and Justice releases results of racial profiling study.(Brief Article)
September 29, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The Council on Crime and Justice last week released the results of a statewide racial profiling study. The study analyzed traffic stop data collected by law enforcement officers in 65 jurisdictions...

Court personnel laid off by 9th District Judicial District due to Minnesota state budget cuts.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones Budget cuts have led to the 9th Judicial District laying off three county court administrators, reclassifying another administrator and leaving one court administrator position unfilled. Court administrators were laid...

Minn. Supreme Court considers proposed change to the continuing legal education rules.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter While the proposal to allow credits for professional development has gotten most of the spotlight, there is another proposed change to the continuing legal education (CLE) rules that the Minnesota...

Minn. Court of Appeals finds shareholder firing properly enjoined by District Court.(Minnesota)
September 29, 2003... Byline: Barbara Jones A District Court judge did not err in granting a temporary injunction to preserve the job of a minority shareholder of a closely held corporation, the Court of Appeals has held. The majority shareholder removed the...

Rulings by 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reflect varied venue views.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Marshall Tanick Where a case is litigated, the venue of the action, is often a significant factor in the ultimate outcome of a lawsuit. In two recent diversity of citizenship cases, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals addressed...

Hamline law school receives three-year grant.(Hamline University. School of Law)(Brief Article)
September 29, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Hamline University School of Law is among a small group of institutions chosen to receive a three-year, $204,000 grant as part of the European Community-United States of America Cooperation Program in...

Minnesota Supreme Court to visit Winona area.(Brief Article)
September 29, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter Southeast Minnesota residents are invited to meet the Minnesota Supreme Court and local judges during an informal community dinner on Monday, Oct. 13, 2003, in Winona. The "Meet Your Court" dinner is...

Minn. Court of Appeals rules claim filed 10 months after ex-husband's death timely.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Michelle Lore An ex-wife's claim against her deceased ex-husband's estate based on an agreement in a dissolution judgment was timely where it was brought 10 months after the deceased's death, the Court of Appeals has ruled. In the...

Minn. Supreme Court hears testimony about proposed new rule for continuing legal education credit.
September 29, 2003... Byline: Minnesota Lawyer Staff Reporter The Minnesota Supreme Court heard testimony last week on a proposed new rule allowing continuing legal education (CLE) credit for personal and professional development courses. On Sept. 24, 12...