Once you’ve identified the parties- that is decided who you want to sue and why, it’s time to think about what court you want to be in. Again, this is something that is more relevant to someone suing than being sued, but that doesn’t mean a defendant never has any input.
Now just as when we suggested that you needed to select the proper parties, your initial reaction to what court you should file your lawsuit in may likewise be met with a frustrated “well duh… the courthouse downtown – where else would a bring a lawsuit?”
And again, it’s time to take a step back and assess what we really mean by selecting your court.
First, there is no such thing as a single, general court in the United States. Courts are creatures of the U.S. Constitution as well as the constitutions of the various states. In addition, there are courts created by statute. There are a lot of different courts than the one downtown, created for different purposes.
There are specialized courts, such as United States Tax Court, Bankruptcy Court, Court of Military Appeals, etc. These courts hear only certain kinds of cases. You cannot sue someone for causing a car accident in The United States Tax Court for example.
While all states have what are called courts of general jurisdiction, some states have others as well. Most states have a form of small claims court for cases where the amount in controversy is below a certain amount. In some states there is another level of courts between small claims and the court of general jurisdiction. Florida for example has county courts as well as circuit courts.
The first thing that you need to assess is whether or now the court you want to proceed in has what is called subject matter jurisdiction. Subject matter jurisdiction refers to both the kind of case as well as the amount in controversy.
A small claims court may be a good place to bring a lawsuit if someone breached their contract with you, but only if the amount of damages being sought does not exceed the jurisdictional limit of the court. County Courts in Florida as another example can hear almost all kinds of cases, but only if the amount in controversy is below a certain amount.
In addition, you have to make sure that the court you want to proceed in can exercise personal jurisdiction over the person you want to sue. The issue of personal jurisdiction is complicated and comes into play whenever the parties to a lawsuit are residents or do business in different states. Of course this can quickly get complicated if there are multiple defendants residing in different states.
Finally, we promised that even defendants would need to be aware of the court selection issues. If the jurisdictional requirements are met, a lawsuit brought by a plaintiff in a state court can be removed by the defendant to federal court. This is a very valuable tool because it can cause a plaintiff to reassess their position. After getting everything organized and filed in state court, the plaintiff suddenly find them-self in a United States District Court.
As you can see, it can be a bit more complicated than just running down to the local courthouse with a sheaf of papers in your hand.
The people that engage in thorough planning will be successful. Those that don’t will be the people whining and complaining because they have filed a lawsuit that was thrown out of court.