Essay About A. Federal Court And Direct Conflict

Civil Procedure
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Civil Procedure Flowchart
Choosing a Proper Court: The Three Rings
1. Personal Jurisdiction
A. There must be either a statute (usually long-arm statute) or rule enabling the
court to exercise jurisdiction
B. The exercise of personal jurisdiction must be within constitutional limits
i. Domicile: where a person plans to stay indefinitely
ii. Consent: inferred if objections waived
iii. Presence
iv. Personal service within jurisdiction
v. Minimum contacts
a. substantial/pervasive: general jurisdiction
b. single or continuous but limited: specific jurisdiction
c. no contacts or casual/isolated: no jurisdiction
d. purposeful availment (stream of commerce)
C. If jurisdiction enabled and constitutional, there must be no special
circumstances (extreme inconvenience to , lack of state interest in enforcing)
to merit denial of jurisdiction
D. Personal jurisdiction may be challenged
i. Common law, special appearance rule: can only make appearance to
object to jurisdiction; objection is waived if any issues are raised on the
merits
ii. FRCP 12: objections to personal jurisdiction can be raised with other
objections; objection is waived if not raised before answering to merits
iii. Can default judgment in rendering court and challenge jurisdiction in
enforcing court; however, cannot defend against the merits
iv. Cannot challenge jurisdiction in enforcing court if challenged in
rendering court
E. Federal courts have personal jurisdiction over a  who could be subjected to it
by a state court in which district the district court is located
2. Subject Matter Jurisdiction for Federal Courts
A. Federal question: does not require minimum amount in controversy
B. Specific issues that exclude state court jurisdiction; eg. copyright cases
C. Diversity
i. Complete diversity (no  with same citizenship as any , except where
supplemental jurisdiction allows)
ii. Citizenship of persons determined by domicile, corporations by
incorporation or principal place of business (Ч1332)
iii. Requires amount in controversy ($75,000)
a. single  may aggregate claims against single 
D. State courts have general subject matter jurisdiction, except as stated in (b)
3. Venue (Ч1391)
A. Venue based on residence
i. allows any district any  resides in, if all s reside in same state
B. Venue based on event giving rise to the claim
i. allows any district where substantial part of events giving rise to the
claim occurred
C. Fallback provisions
i. if case based solely on diversity, then venue is proper in any district  is
subject to personal jurisdiction, if no other district available
ii. if not diversity, then venue proper in any district  can be found, if no
other district available
D. Venue can be waived by  if fail to object (FRCP 12)
4. Removal (Ч1441)
A. Federal court must have original jurisdiction over a case before it can be
removed from state court; however,  in a diversity case may not remove if 
is citizen of state in which action is brought
B. Removal must be to the federal district court for the district where action is
pending
C. Federal venue rules do not apply in removed actions
D. Cases get removed, not claims
E. Notice of removal must be filed within 30 days of receiving pleading
State Law in Federal Courts
1. There must be a direct conflict between a Federal Rule or federal statute and state law
2. Conflicts between a federal Constitutional provision and a state law: Constitution wins
3. Conflict between federal statute and state law
A. If statute is arguably procedural, then statute wins
4. Conflict between a Federal Rule and state law
A. If Federal Rule does not “abridge, enlarge, or modify” a substantive right
(Ч2072), then Federal Rule wins
5. Conflict between federal law and state law
A. If state law is not outcome determinative, then apply federal law
B. Outcome determinative test guided by prevention of forum shopping