Minnesota Motion Practice  

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has created a very useful document (which it regularly updates) which identifies standards of appellate review for different kinds of trial court orders, including summary judgment and dismissal actions.

This document is available from the state law library as a PDF. Search for the section on "Pretrial Judgments."

This treatise contains sample pleadings commonly used in Minnesota. Has a chapter on summary judgment, which includes some sample forms, and an overview of summary judgment (with references to cases), supported documentation needed in making such a motion, responses to summary judgment motions, etc. Also has subsections covering motions to dismiss.

This treatise includes a subsection on summary judgment within chapter on Dismissals and Judgments Short of Trial; Rule 41 Motions to Dismiss are also covered in here. For Rule 12 motions to dismiss, you’ll want to look at the chapter on Defendant’s Pleading or Response. The discussion on summary judgment includes forms, history, test for granting summary judgment, etc.

This resource is available in print in the library on reserve, and also available on LexisNexis.

This is a 2007 resource from Minnesota Continuing Legal Education (the full title is "Trial practice and procedure in Minnesota state court : how to litigate the civil case"). It contains a chapter on “Dismissals, Motions to Dismiss, Motions for Summary Judgment,” which is authored by Michael L. Weiner. It's a quick and easy reference for summary judgment and dismissal motions, what they are, what the standards are, who may bring such motions, the timing of the motions, etc.

This resource is available in print, and electronically from Minnesota CLE (contact reference desk for information on how to obtain login code for William Mitchell). From the home page, click the "Online Library - Search for free" button, and then do a search for "summary judgment" in the "search by keyword in chapter body." This title should be the first hit of many chapters. Feel free to look at the other results, as well!

Attached is a PDF from the presentation the William Mitchell Reference Librarians gave on how to plan your research for your motion practice assignment.

This resource (subtitled, "An encyclopedia of Minnesota law") is an encyclopedia of legal topics and their treatment in Minnesota; it also includes references to cases (hence the “digest” part of the title). Summary judgment is included under the “Judgments” topic, and consists of a good description of the motion as compared with other judgment motions, the affidavits necessary to include in such a motion, when and how to use such a motion, and how such motions are treated on appeal. Motions to dismiss can be found primarily under the “Pleadings,” “Dismissal,” and “Appeal and Error” topics.

This resource is available in print, in the Minnesota Reference Collection, and on Lexis Nexis.

Minnesota Practice Series is a multi-volume West product that summarizes several different areas of Minnesota law. The library owns two copies of this series, one on reserve and one in the Minnesota Reference section.

Several of the individual titles in the series relate to civil procedure, and thus cover summary judgment (Rule 56) and motions to dismiss (Rules 12 and 41). On Westlaw, the database identifier for the entire multi-volume series is MNPRAC.

As you probably remember from WRAP, Minnesota Digest is a finding tool, organized by topics, that can lead you to Minnesota case law about the topic. In the Descriptive Word Index (DWI), you’ll see that Summary Judgment is covered by many topics within the Digest, but especially in “Federal Civil Procedure 2461-2559” and “Judgment 178-190”. Likewise, you’ll find many references to motions to dismiss in the DWI, but may want to especially check out “Federal Civil Procedure 1721-1812” and “Pretrial Procedure 551-652.”

This resource is available in the library in the Minnesota Reference Collection. You may also access the key number system on Westlaw: At the very top of the Westlaw screen you’ll see “Find&Print,” “Keycite,” etc. Click on “Key Numbers.” There you can search for “summary judgment” or “motion to dismiss” within Minnesota or other jurisdictions.

Some items in this guide are links to William Mitchell College of Law licensed database resources. These resources are available from all public computers in the library, as well as all computers signed into the WMCL network either through Ethernet or Wireless access.

Westlaw, Bloomberg Law and LexisNexis are subscription services that require individual user accounts for access.  See a reference librarian if you are having trouble accessing these resources.

Suggested Subject Searches:

The following subject searches may be more productive than a keyword search:

Motions (Law) -- Minnesota

Pre-trial procedure -- Minnesota

Civil procedure -- Minnesota

If you need more information on this topic, please contact the reference desk:

by phone: 651-290-6424

via e-mail: reference@wmitchell.edu

or via IM chat during reference hours on the library's website