Welcome to your daily briefing on legal developments in Minnesota. Today we're covering 5 key stories including updates on minnesota legal headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
2 stories
CorpNet has published contact and document filing information for the Minnesota Secretary of State to help create or maintain businesses.
Legal professionals handling MN business formations, annual filings, or entity maintenance can streamline client work with centralized SOS contact and filing guidance.
The Wikipedia article provides an overview of the Minnesota State Bar Association, the mandatory bar association for attorneys licensed to practice in Minnesota.
Understanding the structure and role of the MSBA helps MN legal professionals navigate their mandatory membership and the resources available to them.
Reach professionals in this market
3 stories
A preservation (litigation hold) letter is appropriate as soon as litigation is reasonably anticipated, not just after a complaint is filed. The letter should identify the matter, the document categories at issue, and the recipient's preservation duty. Failure to send one is the leading evidence of spoliation in subsequent motion practice.
Sanctions for spoliation can include adverse-inference instructions, monetary fines, and in severe cases default judgment. The cost of issuing a hold letter is one paralegal hour.
Beyond civil-rights and consumer-protection statutes, many MN jurisdictions have fee-shifting provisions in landlord-tenant, mechanics' lien, insurance bad-faith, and construction-defect contexts. Pleading the fee-shifting statute in the complaint is typically required to preserve the right to recover.
A fee-shifting case has fundamentally different settlement dynamics than a non-fee case, especially in low-damages disputes where fees can dwarf the underlying claim.
The clock can pause for: (1) the defendant being out of state in some jurisdictions, (2) the plaintiff being a minor or under disability, (3) the defendant fraudulently concealing the cause of action. The clock does NOT pause for: settlement negotiations, insurance correspondence, or the plaintiff being unaware of the legal theory.
Misreading tolling is the most common malpractice claim against general civil litigators. The defenses are routinely lost on motion to dismiss before discovery even opens.
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