Partnerships · Minnesota Procedure
A working reference
Minnesota does several things differently enough to cost a case. An action is commenced by service rather than filing. A case not filed within a year of commencement is deemed dismissed with prejudice. Motion practice runs on the General Rules of Practice and on the assigned judge's standing orders, which control when they conflict with your assumptions.
This is written for the lawyer who has the case and needs the mechanics — newly admitted, or admitted elsewhere. Every article is sourced to the rule text. Nothing here is a pitch.
Minnesota commences a civil action by service, not by filing — and the filing deadline that follows it is the single most expensive trap in the rules.
Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 14
Attorneys are Select Users and must e-file and e-serve statewide. What that does to the service date, why the summons is still conventional under Rule 5.02(b), and the confirmation that's solely yours to check.
Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 104, 111
What Rule 104 requires at filing, which form goes with which case type, why Rule 111's separate informational statement is gone, and the 90-day outer limit on the scheduling order.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 4
Minnesota commences a civil action by service, not filing. The Rule 4.03 methods, the abode-service conditions, publication, and the waiver procedure that replaced acknowledgment of service in 2018.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 5.04
An action commenced but not filed within one year is deemed dismissed with prejudice against all parties unless the parties signed a stipulation to extend inside that year. Here's the exact text, the family carve-out, and how filing on the last day actually works.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 6
How Minnesota counts deadlines after the 2020 timing amendments, which days drop out as legal holidays, why the three-day mail extension lives in Rule 6.01(e) and not Rule 6.05, and what Rule 6.02 can't enlarge.
What must be pleaded, what is waived by omission, and how late a claim or a party can still come in.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 12
Minn. R. Civ. P. 12.08 sorts defenses into three groups with three different fates. Which ones die in the first response, which last to trial, and how a Rule 12 motion turns into summary judgment.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 15
When you can amend without leave, when you need it, and the exact conditions Minn. R. Civ. P. 15.03 sets before an amendment changing a party relates back to the original pleading.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 41
Voluntary dismissal by notice, by stipulation, and by order; the two-dismissal rule; and the Rule 41.02(c) default that makes a silent dismissal order an adjudication on the merits.
Getting a motion heard in Minnesota is governed as much by the General Rules of Practice and the assigned judge's standing orders as by the Rules of Civil Procedure.
Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 115
Dispositive motions run on a 28/14/7 schedule and nondispositive on 21/14/7, counted backward from the hearing, and both share a single 35-page cap.
Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 119
Ask for $1,000 or more for the action and a Minnesota fee request has to come by motion, backed by an attorney affidavit that establishes four specific things. The four are the article.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 56
Minnesota keeps 'no genuine issue,' bars a motion filed more than 30 days after discovery closes, and requires a separately cited fact recital under Gen. R. Prac. 115.03(d)(3).
Minn. R. Civ. P. 63
Ten days from notice of the assigned judge, and never after that judge has presided at a motion or other proceeding the party had notice of. Nothing warns you.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 65
Minnesota's Rule 65.01 puts no expiration date on an ex parte TRO. What ends it is the applicant's duty to proceed on the temporary injunction. And security is mandatory.
Scope, limits, the meet-and-confer that is a precondition rather than a courtesy, and what happens when it fails.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 26
Minnesota's initial disclosures are self-executing and run off the answer date, not a federal-style Rule 26(f) conference. Scope, proportionality, expert disclosure, the discovery moratorium, and privilege logs under Minn. R. Civ. P. 26.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 30
Under Rule 30.02(f), the organization is the deponent, not the witness. Plus the three narrow grounds for telling a witness not to answer, the seven-hour limit, and the 2025 remote-deposition amendments.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 33, 34, 36
Minnesota allows 50 interrogatories, not 25. Miss the deadline on requests for admission and they're admitted automatically, and it takes a motion to get out. Rules 33, 34, and 36 in practice.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 37
The good-faith conferral certification is a precondition to a Minnesota motion to compel, not a courtesy. Fee shifting runs both ways by default. Sanctions under Rules 37.01 through 37.06.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 45
Minn. R. Civ. P. 45.01(e) makes any pretrial use of a subpoena without prior notice to all parties improper and sanctionable, and it's broader than the federal notice rule. Plus the county reach limit, the 14-day objection, and the grounds to quash.
Default, entry, stays, and the clocks that start running the moment judgment does.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 55
Minnesota has no clerk's entry of default. Rule 55.01 goes straight to judgment, and the 14-day notice owed to any party who has appeared is what gets defaults undone.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 62
Minnesota has no automatic stay. Neither a post-trial motion nor a notice of appeal stops execution. A stay takes a trial court order and, almost always, security.
We associate with lawyers on Minnesota matters as co-counsel, as local counsel, or for a single appearance. Any division of fees follows Minn. R. Prof. Conduct 1.5(e) — in writing, with the client's informed consent.