You are contacted by the resident of another state for whom you wish to provide legal advice on a pending matter.  However, you are not licensed in that state and are concerned about the unauthorized practice of law. If the state has adopted American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rule of Professional Conduct (MRPC) 5.5 (Unauthorized Practice of>>>

A defense asserted occasionally in criminal cases, especially first-degree murder, is the “alternative perpetrator” doctrine.  Under this tenet, a defendant claims that someone else committed the offense.  The travails of raising this defense were reflected in a recent ruling of the Minnesota Supreme Court in State v. Ferguson, 804 N.W.2d>>>

In 2011, legal research company Fastcase, which provides free caselaw and statutory research services to MSBA members via the MSBA website, launched a new utility that enables one-click printing of any case from any source on the web or in any Microsoft Word document. Called Fastcase Cloud Printing, the utility lets you print or save a nicely>>>

According to a survey conducted by court public information officers, in 2010 40 percent of state court judges were using social media profile sites, with the majority of them on Facebook. One can only speculate how active Minnesota judges may be on social media today, but MSBA’s Civil Litigation Section offers online profiles of participating>>>

The legal posture of employment manuals, first recognized as legally binding in Minnesota nearly 30 years ago, took a hit last year in the context of an unemployment compensation claim.  The role of handbooks in providing job security or other protection to employees has been tottering ever since the Minnesota Supreme Court first recognized that>>>

A nonprofit youth and family service provider in Bemidji seeks to recover revenues owed the agency due to a billing dispute with Hennepin County. The nonprofit served a minor Hennepin County resident in a chemical dependency treatment program and was only paid for part of the time the young man was a resident. The residency dates were Oct. 1,>>>

A claim under the Minnesota Human Rights Act for sexual harassment must relate to conduct that is “sexual” in nature, not simply gender-based.  The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently made that point, in an unpublished decision, upholding summary judgment by the Sherburne County District Court of a lawsuit brought by an employee who asserted>>>

Effective December 1, 2011, the 4th Judicial District Court (Hennepin County) requires all proposed guardians and conservators, except the proposed guardian of a minor, to: watch a new guardianship/conservatorship educational video before they appear at their initial hearings; and file a modified version of the Acceptance of Appointment>>>

In honor of Pro Bono Week, October 23-29, the folks at Thomson-Reuters’ Findlaw offered the following “five top reasons” to do pro bono work: Pro Bono Rules. The ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct Rule 6.1 states that lawyers should provide at least 50 hours of pro bono legal services per year. Expand Your Horizons. So what if your>>>

Unemployment law judges (ULJ) who work for the Department of Employment & Economic Development (DEED) and adjudicate unemployment compensation claims are required to assist unrepresented parties in presenting their cases.  Their failure to do so can lead to reconsideration and reversal of their initial rulings.  That feature of the>>>