We recently won a significant victory for our client when we convinced the Court of Appeals to strike down Minnesota’s DWI Forfeiture Law as unconstitutional. But this win was much broader than one case — it potentially impacts all pending and future DWI forfeitures.
We’ve been receiving a lot of calls from a lot of other defense attorneys, asking us how they can use our victory to help win their client’s case. This usually turns into one of two things: 1) a long discussion about the history and application of the Due Process clause of the Constitution and how it applies to Minnesota’s forfeiture laws, or 2) a plea to just get a copy of our briefs.
Our work product is very . . . precious to us. It’s how we make our living. Our staff, our families, and our reputation all rest on us putting everything we have into our work, which includes the legal arguments that we develop and the effort we put into laying them out in writing. Asking us to release “our precious” is a tall order. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.
But in this case, it makes sense for us to do it. Given the impact that this decision has on every DWI forfeiture, it would seem wrong to not give everyone the opportunity to raise the issue in the same way that we raised it. Ideally, the due process rights of Minnesotans shouldn’t rest on who they hire as an attorney.
