Police Dog Bites and the Fourth Amendment: What the Eighth Circuit Actually Requires
Minnesota K-9 bite cases are governed by specific Eighth Circuit law on warnings, bite duration, and qualified immunity — not by Graham v. Connor alone.
Read →Injury & Insurance
Crashes, dog bites, dram shop, and what an insurer actually owes you.
Twenty-Nine Municipal Immunities, and Two of Them Are Doors to Everything Else
Minn. Stat. § 466.03 enumerates 29 exceptions to Minnesota municipal tort liability. Subdivision 1 makes landing in one of them immunity rather than common law, and subdivisions 7 and 15 make the list open-ended.
Read →A Minnesota Judge Cannot Order a Medical Malpractice Case Into Mediation
Minn. Stat. § 604.11 is not a trial statute — the word 'verdict' does not appear in it. It is a discovery statute with three subdivisions, and one sentence in subdivision 2 gives every party an absolute veto over ADR.
Read →Jail Suicide and Failure to Protect: What the Eighth Circuit Requires in a Minnesota Case
Farmer v. Brennan's deliberate-indifference standard applied to suicide and inmate-on-inmate violence — the two prongs, the Eighth Circuit's subjective rule, and the Minnesota jail standards that generate the proof.
Read →A Payment on a Minnesota Judgment Does Not Reduce the Judgment. Not Until Two Other Things Are Paid First.
Minn. Stat. § 549.09 runs interest across three separate periods computed by three different officials, and subdivisions 3 and 4 apply every payment to disbursements, then accrued interest, and only then to principal.
Read →The No-Fault Deduction Does Not Pay Anyone Back. It Pays the Defendant.
Minn. Stat. § 65B.51, subd. 1 orders the court to subtract no-fault benefits from a tort recovery — with no motion, no deadline, and, in the ordinary Minnesota crash, no subrogation right on the other side. The money does not go back to the carrier. It stays with the defendant.
Read →A Death-in-Custody § 1983 Claim in Minnesota Belongs to a Court-Appointed Trustee — Not the Family, and Not the Estate
Section 1983 says a violator is liable 'to the party injured,' and says nothing about who sues when the injured party is dead. Federal law sends that question to Minnesota's wrongful death statute — and the Eighth Circuit has enforced it against an estate that got the wrong appointment.
Read →Denied Medical Care in a Minnesota Jail: What the Eighth Circuit Actually Requires
Kingsley's objective standard governs excessive force against a pretrial detainee. The Eighth Circuit has not extended it to medical care — so in Minnesota, plan on proving what the jailer actually knew.
Read →Four Years Is the Easy Part of a Minnesota Malpractice Deadline. 'Health Care Provider' Means Four Different Things.
Minn. Stat. § 541.076 gives four years from accrual. But the definition of 'health care provider' in the limitations statute is not the definition used by the minority-tolling statute, the expert-affidavit statute, or the death statutes.
Read →Minnesota's 'Fireman's Rule' Statute Is an Anti-Fireman's-Rule Statute — and in May 2026 It Got Bigger
Minn. Stat. § 604.06 does not codify the common law fireman's rule. It disables it for peace officers and public safety officers. A 2026 amendment enlarged the covered class and applied the change retroactively to February 1, 2020.
Read →North America's Largest Freight Broker Is Headquartered in Eden Prairie. The Supreme Court Just Held Brokers Can Be Sued for Hiring Unsafe Truckers.
In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, a unanimous Court held that negligent-hiring claims against freight brokers are not preempted by the FAAAA. The industry's center of gravity sits in Minnesota, and so does the exposure.
Read →Minnesota Gave Product Manufacturers a Defense Instead of a Repose Statute. The Difference Is the Whole Case.
Minn. Stat. § 604.03 makes expiration of a product's ordinary useful life a defense — not a deadline. It has no date certain, the manufacturer's own stated service life is one of six nonexclusive factors, and it does not bar the claim.
Read →The Ten-Day Paper Trial That Decides What a Minnesota Verdict Is Worth
Minn. Stat. § 548.251 is not a damages rule. It is a written evidentiary proceeding on a ten-day fuse, it applies only where there is a verdict, it never reaches future benefits, and in an auto case it is usually not the operative statute at all.
Read →Minnesota Personal Injury Claims No Longer Die With the Injured Person
Until May 20, 2023, Minn. Stat. § 573.01 said a personal injury cause of action 'dies with the person.' It now says the claim survives the death of any party. What that changed — and what it did not.
Read →The Retailer's Escape Hatch in Minnesota Product Cases Only Opens If the Plaintiff Opens It — and It Only Lets Out One Claim
Minn. Stat. § 544.41 lets a nonmanufacturer certify the manufacturer's identity and be dismissed. The dismissal is conditional, reversible on five grounds, and reaches only strict liability in tort.
Read →Fifty Percent and Fifty-One Percent Are Different Cases in Minnesota. One Point of Fault Decides Who Bears the Empty Chair.
Minn. Stat. § 604.02, subd. 1 made several liability the default in 2003 and kept joint and several liability for four categories — including any defendant whose fault is greater than 50 percent.
Read →Minnesota Has No Statute That Reduces Your Future Damages to Present Value
Minn. Stat. § 604.07 was repealed in 1988 and §§ 604.08–604.09 in 1994. What survives is § 549.25 — a hearing, not a discount — and a past/future split that exists because the interest statute needs it.
Read →Minnesota's Vulnerable Adults Act Does Not Give You a Nursing Home Neglect Claim. It Gives You Something Better and Something Narrower.
Minn. Stat. § 626.557 creates a private treble-damages action for financial exploitation only. For neglect and abuse it supplies a mandatory report, a state investigation, and a public memorandum — and the negligence case still has to stand on its own.
Read →A Parent Cannot Settle a Minnesota Child's Injury Claim. Only a Judge Can.
Minn. Stat. § 540.08 makes an unapproved settlement of a minor's claim invalid, and Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 145 supplies the machinery — including a rule that reaches claims with no lawsuit on file, and a fund the child cannot touch at 18 without a second order.
Read →In Minnesota the Driver Is Deemed the Owner's Agent — Which Is Why the Real Defendant Is Often Not Behind the Wheel
Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 5a makes a permissive driver the owner's agent 'in case of accident.' It contains no cap, no theft exception, and no presumption of consent — and the leading cases all cite a statute number that no longer exists.
Read →A Minnesota Consortium Claim Is Not the Spouse's Own Case. It Is a Passenger on Someone Else's.
Minnesota's spousal consortium claim comes from Thill v. Modern Erecting Co. (1969), not from a statute, and it was created with conditions attached — including a joinder rule that kills the claim if the injured spouse's case goes to trial without it.
Read →Against a Minnesota City, the Deadline That Ends Your Case Is Not the Statute of Limitations
Minn. Stat. § 466.05 requires written notice to a municipality's governing body within 180 days of discovering the injury. Minn. Stat. § 466.04 caps damages, § 466.03 lists the immunities, and § 466.06 contains the one lever most claimants never pull.
Read →A Minnesota Jury Will Never Hear That You Weren't Wearing a Seat Belt — or That You Were
Minn. Stat. § 169.685, subd. 4 makes proof of seat belt and child restraint use or nonuse inadmissible in any litigation involving personal injury or property damage from the use or operation of a motor vehicle. The bar runs both ways, with one exception.
Read →Minnesota Caps What a Health Plan Can Take From Your Settlement. Whether the Cap Reaches Your Plan Depends on Who Wrote the Check.
Minn. Stat. § 62A.095 forbids a health plan's subrogation clause unless it applies only after full recovery and is reduced by a pro rata share of fees and costs. Self-funded ERISA plans argue the limit does not reach them.
Read →A Fight With Your Own No-Fault Insurer Does Not Go to a Jury. It Goes to One Arbitrator Who Is Only Half Trusted With the Law.
Minn. Stat. § 65B.525 forces no-fault benefit claims of $10,000 or less into binding arbitration under the Minnesota No-Fault Arbitration Rules. The arbitrator's fact findings are final; the arbitrator's legal conclusions are reviewed de novo.
Read →Minnesota's Tort Threshold Subtracts the Two Bills a Hurt Person Is Most Likely to Run Up
Minn. Stat. § 65B.51, subd. 3 bars noneconomic damages in a Minnesota motor vehicle case unless a threshold is met — and the $4,000 computation removes diagnostic x-rays and rehabilitative treatment from the total before it is measured.
Read →Minnesota Reduces a Verdict Three Times, in a Fixed Order — and the Order Is Worth Real Money
Minn. Stat. § 548.251 and § 604.01 answer two different questions, and § 548.251, subd. 3(c) fixes the sequence between them. Collateral sources come off before the fault reduction; settlement credits come off after. Same dollars, different result.
Read →Minnesota's Recreational Land Use Statute Does Not Protect the Landowner Who Stays Quiet. It Protects the One Who Says Yes.
Minn. Stat. §§ 604A.20–604A.27 strip a landowner's duty of care toward recreational users — but only for an owner 'who gives written or oral permission ... without charge.' Section 604A.27 keeps that permission from ripening into an easement.
Read →Minnesota Does Not Let a Family Sue for a Wrongful Death. It Lets a Trustee Sue for Them.
Minn. Stat. § 573.02 gives the cause of action to a court-appointed trustee, not to the spouse or the children. Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 144 supplies the machinery — and a 2023 amendment quietly enlarged what that trustee is allowed to recover.
Read →Minnesota's Dog-Bite Statute Deletes Almost Everything a Plaintiff Normally Has to Prove. The Whole Case Lives in Two Phrases.
Minn. Stat. § 347.22 makes a dog's owner liable for 'the full amount of the injury sustained' — no negligence, no prior bite, no scienter. All that is left to fight about is provocation and whether the person was lawfully present.
Read →Minnesota's Dram Shop Notice Deadline Starts Running the Day the Client Hires a Lawyer
Minn. Stat. § 340A.801 creates a claim against a vendor who caused an intoxication by an illegal sale. Minn. Stat. § 340A.802 conditions it on written notice served within 240 days of the date counsel is retained — and bars the action without it.
Read →Minnesota No-Fault Is Sold as a Trade. The Half You Give Up Is Decided by a Doctor, Months After the Crash.
Minn. Stat. ch. 65B pays $40,000 in basic economic loss benefits regardless of fault. Section 65B.51, subd. 3 then bars any recovery for noneconomic detriment unless a $4,000 net medical figure — or one of four injury categories — is met.
Read →On a Minnesota Sidewalk, Who Owns the Building Next to the Ice Decides the Case Before Anyone Looks at the Ice
Minnesota abolished the invitee/licensee distinction in 1972, but Minn. Stat. § 466.03, subd. 4 immunizes municipalities for snow and ice on most public sidewalks, § 466.03, subd. 6e immunizes parks, and § 466.05 gives a claimant 180 days to present notice.
Read →The Coverage You Bought for the Worst Crash Is the One You Are Most Likely to Throw Away, and the Act That Throws It Away Looks Like Progress
Minnesota requires every auto policy to carry uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under Minn. Stat. § 65B.49, subd. 3a. Section 65B.49, subd. 4a sets the payout against what the at-fault driver actually paid, and subd. 10 now puts a four-year clock on UIM.
Read →Minnesota Never Created a Bad Faith Tort. It Created a Formula, and Put It Behind a Motion.
Minn. Stat. § 604.18 gives a first-party insured taxable costs — half the proceeds above the insurer's pre-trial offer, capped at $250,000, plus fees capped at $100,000 — but only after a motion to amend, only from the judge, and never after arbitration or appraisal.
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