**If a case has a concurrent federal-state jurisdiction and the plaintiff chooses to file
in the state court, the defendant has the
right of removal
to move the case to a
federal district court in the same area at the beginning of the case.
**As a general rule, a summons is effective to give the court personal jurisdiction
only if it is served on the defendant within the forum state. Thus, if P files a suit for
breach of contract against D in a state or federal court in Michigan, a summons
issued normally must be served on D within Michigan to give the court personal
jurisdiction,
**100 mile rule allows federal court to exercise personal jurisdiction over certain
parties who have been joined to a case if those parties are within 100-miles of the
Court even if they are in another state or if the state court in the state where the
federal court sits would not have personal jurisdiction over them.
**Rule 4(k)(2) of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allows a federal court to exercise
personal jurisdiction over a foreign defendant that has enough contact with the US
as a whole to establish a personal jurisdiction but not sufficient contacts for state
personal jurisdiction.
**VENUE: If a state district Court has subject matter and personal jurisdiction in a
case filed by P, every district court has such jurisdiction. Then the question of where
the lawsuit should be heard is a question of
venue.
Every state has statutes that
specify which counties are appropriate venues, normally where the accident occurs
or where the defendant lives.
D. Court Systems
Imagine a pyramid, if you would. At the bottom level of the pyramid, every system of
courts has a large number of trial courts. With only very rare exceptions, this is the
first stop for every lawsuit. Here, lawyers file pleadings, select juries, and place
witnesses on the stand for examination. Here, judges rule on motions and
objections, give juries instructions, and enter judgments. Juries listen to evidence,
deliberate, and return verdicts. These are called district courts in the federal
system.
The middle layer of our pyramid is occupied by intermediate appellate courts. If
parties to a lawsuit are dissatisfied with how a trial court handled a case, they can
take an appeal here. When a party appeals a case to a higher court, it is not a do
over. Instead, a panel of judges reviews the case for errors. In the federal system,
courts on this level are called U.S. Courts of Appeal or circuit courts.
At the top of the pyramid is a Supreme Court (some states actually have two, one for
civil and one for criminal cases). If a party is unhappy with an intermediate court's
actions, it can ask a supreme court to give a final review to the case. But in most
situations, there is no automatic right to this last appeal. A party must instead ask a
Supreme Court for a
writ of certiorari
to proceed, and the answer is almost always
"no" because such courts are too busy to hear most of the appeals brought their
way.
