Minnesota

Another federal judge blasts Prenda Law over firm’s handling of porn-downloading lawsuits

Blasted earlier this year by a federal judge in California over its handling of cases against alleged illegal downloaders of pornography, a Chicago-based law firm known for its mass copyright litigation has been blasted again by a federal judge in Minnesota. In a blistering Wednesday opinion (PDF), Magistrate Judge Franklin…

Nov 7, 2013 6:15 PM CST

Teen wrestler sues after he is suspended for tweet saying he will ‘drill’ his teammates

A high-school wrestler in Minnesota has filed a suit claiming his school violated his constitutional rights when it suspended him over a tweet. The 16-year-old youth from Shakopee High School says he was indefinitely suspended for a tweet he sent in August some time before a football scrimmage, the Minneapolis…

Oct 23, 2013 1:53 PM CDT

Lawyer once accused of Segway DWI now faces ethics complaint

A Minneapolis lawyer who successfully fought multiple Segway DWI charges is now facing an unrelated ethics complaint. Mark Alan Greenman won a Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling in January that he can’t be charged with drunken driving because a Segway is not a motor vehicle, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.…

Oct 17, 2013 12:52 PM CDT

Boy, 9, who took flight to Las Vegas without ticket is removed from family home

Updated: A juvenile court judge Wednesday ordered an unspecified “out-of-home placement” for a 9-year-old Minnesota boy who recently made it through security at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and boarded a flight to Las Vegas without a ticket. Granting a child-protection petition filed by Hennepin County, Minn., which the boy’s parents…

Oct 16, 2013 9:20 PM CDT

Boy, 9, stole truck, hit cop car two days before flight to Las Vegas without ticket, police say

The distraught father of a 9-year-old boy who reportedly got on an airline flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Las Vegas without a ticket last week said at news conference that the family tried to deal with the boy and sought help, to no avail. Just days earlier, on Oct. 1,…

Oct 9, 2013 10:55 PM CDT

Boy, 9, boards Las Vegas flight without ticket, launching airport security probe

Updated: Because of his age, a 9-year-old boy who boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Las Vegas without a ticket last Thursday won’t face criminal charges. However, an investigation is underway to determine if airport security issues need to be addressed, according to Reuters…

Oct 8, 2013 7:44 PM CDT

Minn. Supreme Court considers sanctions for lawyer’s anti-Catholic slurs

The Minnesota Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday over the proper punishment for a lawyer who laced court pleadings with anti-Catholic slurs. The court will decide whether Rebekah Nett should be suspended for six months, as a special referee has recommended, or for two years or more, as the state Office…

Oct 4, 2013 8:30 PM CDT

Park officials can’t restrict man’s right to hand out Bibles at gay pride event, appeals court says

Minneapolis park officials cannot restrict a man’s right to give away Bibles at a gay pride event in a public park, a federal appeals court has held. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling (PDF) Wednesday, said the park district hadn’t shown that such…

Sep 12, 2013 8:16 PM CDT

Lawyer wins court order for confidential Boy Scout files that may reveal extent of sexual abuse

Confidential files produced in connection with a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America may shed new light on the extent of the organization’s sexual abuse problem. The files have been turned over to lawyers for a former Scout who is suing the organization and a former scoutmaster who is…

Sep 10, 2013 8:06 PM CDT

Law firm associate disciplined for helping suspended partner practice

When Minnesota attorney Louis A. Stockman had his license suspended last year for client neglect and other misconduct, an associate took over his Duluth law practice. That got attorney Brian Campbell Fischer in ethical hot water, too. In a Friday order he was put on probation for two years by…

Sep 10, 2013 6:05 PM CDT

Is Missouri bill gunning for the First Amendment? | Audience member sues, alleging Blue Man goof

One aspect of a proposed Missouri law that would override federal gun laws would make it a misdemeanor to “publish the name, address, or other identifying information of any individual who owns a firearm” or who has applied for a firearm license, University of California at Los Angeles law professor…

Sep 6, 2013 2:05 PM CDT

Patent leader leaps from Dorsey & Whitney to Brownstein Hyatt

The chief of Dorsey & Whitney’s Denver patent practice group has leapt to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. S. Craig Hemenway, who is also an electrical engineer, is the second Dorsey partner with intellectual property expertise to join the Brownstein firm recently, according to the Denver Business Journal and the Denver…

Sep 5, 2013 4:45 PM CDT

Ex-client’s ex-husband gets probation in law firm threat case

A former client’s ex-husband got probation after making angry threats over the phone to an attorney at his wife’s Minnesota law firm a couple of months after their divorce was granted in March 2012. Fred William Messig, 44, could have gotten as much as five years in the Washington County…

Sep 3, 2013 5:45 PM CDT

Nightclubs violated law by requiring workers to pay tabs of deadbeat customers, says top Minn. court

Minnesota law protects nightclub workers who were forced to cover the tab for deadbeat customers who didn’t pay their bills or failed to sign credit card receipts, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled. The employees are protected even if their pay didn’t fall below minimum wage after making up the…

Aug 26, 2013 11:00 AM CDT

HIV-positive man can’t be prosecuted for consensual sex after disclosing status, state court says

An HIV-positive man cannot be prosecuted for engaging in consensual sex after disclosing his HIV status to his partner, the Minnesota Supreme Court has held. The court, in a 5-0 decision (PDF) (with two abstentions) Wednesday, found that the law applies to the donation or exchange for value of blood,…

Aug 21, 2013 7:14 PM CDT