Case Law Updates

In a surprising decision in Carpenter v. U.S., the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that law enforcement must have a warrant in order to seek historical cell phone tower records that can accurately identify the location of a person b…

In Minnesota, it is illegal to be carrying while under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances. The offense can be either a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor, requiring possible jail and/or a heavy fine, not to mention revocation of the pers…

Just this past late-spring, the Court of Appeals issued a ruling that summarily approved of a lower court decision in which the expungement waiting period was applied from the date of discharge going forward 2-, 4-, or 5-years. There was no analysis…

This week, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued an important decision, pulling back the expanding usage of drug detection dogs for searches of controlled substances. In State v. Edstrom, the Court of Appeals held that law enforcement must get a warr…

As we’ve discussed on our website and previous blog posts, DWI expungements are difficult to attain. The same could be said for an underage DWI expungement, a conviction that should be treated completely different. In a recent decision, State v…

A common part of sentencing is restitution – which is supposed to repay any victim the out of pocket losses they sustained as a result of the crime. As you can probably imagine, restitution requests can lead to a lot of issues, particularly whe…

One of the ambiguities that surrounded the new law after its change in 2015 was how the expungement waiting period applied. The law provides that a petitioner must be crime free for a period of 1-, 2-, 4-, or 5-years “since discharge” of…

The biggest uncertainty following the release of the new expungement in 2015 was – how would courts treat stays of imposition, in which a felony conviction is later deemed a misdemeanor upon successful completion of probation? Is it a misdemean…