Minnesota District Court Information

Like the other states in the country, there are two types of courts in Minnesota's legal system – federal courts and state courts.

Where to Find the District Court of Minnesota

The federal court in the state is the U.S. District Court meant for the Minnesota District. This court has the statewide jurisdiction in Minnesota and was established by an act of Congress in the year 1849. Though the court is based in Minneapolis, it also hears cases at other places such as in Fergus Falls, Saint Paul and Duluth.

The official legal website of this court is http://www.mnd.uscourts.gov. If you are thinking of filing a case here, you will first need to know about the regulations which you can find at the website. You can also take a look at the court calendar and access the various court forms. The website also lets you make contact with the clerk’s office which is open Monday to Friday between 8.00 in the morning to 5.00 in the evening.

Jurisdiction of the District Court

There are 94 U.S. federal district courts all over the country, and the District Court of Minnesota oversees one of them. In the state’s legal system, this is a general court that has the jurisdiction to hear both criminal as well as civil cases. There is also a bankruptcy court that is associated with each U.S. District Court.

Other federal trial courts have nationwide jurisdiction over certain types of cases. For instance:

•    The U.S. Court of International Trade hears cases involving international trade and customs issues.
•    The United States Court of Federal Claims hears most claims for money against the United States, including disputes over federal contracts, unlawful takings of private property by the federal government, and suits for injury on federal property or by a federal employee.
•    The United States Tax Court hears contested pre-assessment determinations of taxes.

Federal district courts, however, have concurrent jurisdiction over many of those cases, and a federal district court is the only one with jurisdiction over criminal cases. In practice, about 80% of cases are civil and 20%, criminal.

The trial courts are U.S. District Courts, followed by U.S. Courts of Appeal of various circuits, and then the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Attorney's Offices for the respective federal districts represent the United States in civil and criminal litigation.

District Court Appeals

Appeals from the District of Minnesota are made to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).

As of now, the Court has 7 assigned judges operating from St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth and Fergus Falls. In case you have queries to make, here are the contact locations:

•    Warren E. Burger Federal Building & United States Courthouse, 316 North Robert Street,
      100 Federal Building, St. Paul, MN 55101. Phone: 651-848-1100. Fax: 651-848-1109.
      http://www.mnd.uscourts.gov/Courthouses/courthouse_stpaul.shtml

•    U.S. Courthouse, Minneapolis Building, 300 South Fourth Street, 202 U.S. Courthouse,
      Minneapolis, MN 55415. Phone: 612-664-5000. Fax: 612-664-5033.
      http://www.mnd.uscourts.gov/Courthouses/courthouse_minneapolis.shtml

•    U.S. Courthouse, Fergus Falls Building, 118 South Mill Street, 212 U.S.PO Building, Fergus Falls, MN 56537. Phone: 218-739-5758. Fax: 218-739-5325.
      http://www.mnd.uscourts.gov/Courthouses/courthouse_fergus.shtml

The Clerk's Office is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Electronic District Court Filings

With implementation of the Electronic Case Filing system, now legally mandatory for most kinds of cases, you can simply log in to the state’s website and file at https://ecf.mnd.uscourts.gov/.

Per the E-Government Act of 2002, you must ensure that you don’t include, or partially redact where inclusion is a must, a number of personal data from all filings submitted to the court, including accompanying exhibits.

These include Social Security numbers, names of minor children, dates of birth, financial account numbers and home addresses (in criminal cases only). To know more, look up Section (i) of the Administrative Procedures Governing the Filing and Service by Electronic Means at http://www.med.uscourts.gov/ecf/adminprocedures.htm.