News

On November 20, 2012, Paul D. Reuvers and Andrea B. Wing presented an educational seminar for all metro area social workers employed by Golden Living Centers.  The presentation was an overview of old and new Medical Assistance rules and basic estate planning.

The United States Supreme Court recently denied a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari filed by individuals arrested in a mass arrest during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Supreme Court Letter 10 29 12  The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Order of U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson dismissing a lawsuit arising from a mass arrest near Shepard Road during the RNC.  The City of St. Paul and its officers were represented by Jon K. Iverson and Susan M. Tindal.

Iverson Reuvers has been involved in the successful defense or advantageous settlement of all 2008 RNC claims to date.

 

Iverson Reuvers is happy to announce Andrea B. Wing was recently elected to serve a two-year term on the Governing Council for the Elder Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association.  She will also serve as representative of the Elder Law Section to the Minnesota State Bar Association Assembly.

On June 20, 2012, after a two-day jury trial, a United States District Court jury determined a Plymouth officer did not use excessive force during the officer’s attempt to detain and search an individual for weapons.  The subject was highly intoxicated and in his attempt to pull away from the officer, he stumbled to the ground.  The jury rejected the subject’s claim he was picked up and thrown to the ground.  Stephanie A. Angolkar represented the Plymouth officer.

Minnesota Law & Politics magazine recognizes up-and-coming lawyers who are under 40 years old, or are over 40 but practicing law for ten or fewer years.  The magazine’s “Super Lawyers” nominate individuals for Rising Stars.

IVERSON REUVERS is pleased to announce Jason J. Kuboushek, Jason M. Hiveley, and Susan M. Tindal were selected as 2011 “Rising Stars.”

Each year Minnesota Law & Politics surveys attorneys across the state asking them to vote on the best lawyers they have personally observed in action.  A panel of the top vote recipients compiled a list representing the top five percent of lawyers licensed to practice in Minnesota.

IVERSON REUVERS is pleased to announce Jon K. Iverson and Paul D. Reuvers were again selected as 2011 Super Lawyers.

Appellants, the former mayor and two former city council members for the City of Greenfield, sued the City after it released their redacted personal cell phone records in response to a data practices request.  The records were released in response to a citizen’s data practice request, submitted in the wake of controversial decisions by the Greenfield City Council.  Prior to their release, the records provided were redacted by the City’s data-practices compliance official so that only phone calls potentially concerning city business would be disclosed.  Appellants then sued the City, claiming it violated the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (“MGDPA”) by disclosing the records.  Appellants moved for summary judgment, arguing the cell phone records were not government data under the MGDPA.  The district court held the cell phone records were not created or maintained by Appellants in their official capacities and therefore not government data, but left open the question of whether the records became government data under the MGDPA upon receipt or disclosure by the City.  The parties then stipulated the records became government data upon receipt by the City and brought cross-motions for summary judgment.  Appellants argued they were employees and thus their records constituted personnel data presumed private under the MGDPA.  The City argued Appellants were elected officials and the records were presumptively public government data.  The district court concluded the redacted personal cell phone records did not constitute personnel data and granted the City’s motion for summary judgment.

In a decision filed April 16, 2012, the Court of Appeals concluded these particular Appellants were solely elected officials and not employees for purposes of the MGDPA because the City did not consider them employees.  In reaching this conclusion, the Court of Appeals deferred to multiple advisory opinions promulgated by the Commissioner of Administration which state a municipality can choose whether or not to treat its elected officials as employees for purposes of the MGDPA.  The Court reasoned this approach was in accord with the fundamental purpose of the MGDPA to balance rights of data subjects to protect personal information and the right of the public to know what the government is doing.  The Court further noted public policy favored making the records in question public, stating “[e]lected officials should not be able to evade public observation and scrutiny of their work by conducting all pertinent discussions on sensitive matters in private and then simply voting on a fait accompli at the public meeting.”

Paul Reuvers and Amanda Stubson represented the City of Greenfield.

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the Order of US District Court Judge Paul Magnuson dismissing a lawsuit arising from a mass arrest near Shepard Road during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN.  The Court joined the D.C. Circuit’s holding in Carr v. District of Columbia, 587 F.3d 388 (D.C. Cir. 2009) which found probable cause for a mass arrest “is satisfied if the officers have grounds to believe all arrested persons were a part of the unit observed violating the law.”  Based on the video footage, the Eighth Circuit found a reasonable officer could conclude the individuals at the intersection were acting together and that they intended to break through the police line in an attempt to access downtown St. Paul.  It was also reasonable for officers to believe, “that the group, as a whole, was committing one or more offenses under state law, including third degree riot and unlawful assembly.”  The Court found the detention of individuals in a nearby park was “reasonably necessary to achieve the purpose of the temporary seizure.”   The City of St. Paul and the defendant officers were represented by Jon K. Iverson and Susan M. Tindal.