Minnesota Lawyer Blog

Our condolences to the family and friends of Judge Thomas Forsberg, who died Sunday at the age of 80. Forsberg was one of the earliest Court of Appeals judges, joining the court in 1984. He retired in 1995 but continued to serve the court under the rule allowing retired judges to handle cases by appointment. A complete obituary is available by clicking here.

In recent years, Forsberg wrote several Court of Appeals opinions of particular interest to attorneys, including the following:

• a 2003 decision holding that the billing records of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in the tobacco litigation were not protected by attorney-client or work-product privilege;
• a 2004 decision finding that an assignment of proceeds from a lawsuit was champertous; and
• a 2005 decision allowing the former Cottonwood County attorney to sue the county for defamation following an investigation into allegations made by employees.