Where (in which Court) a case can be tried is determined by the rules governing whether a specific Court, (usually County, State or Federal Court) has the ';Power'; to adjudicate over the case and issue orders.
Lawyers with many years of experience are known to go cross-eyed over this subject.
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Jurisdiction is one of the subjects which new students learn in law school, and one of the most difficult to wrap their heads around.
jurisdiction: an overview
One of the most fundamental questions of law is whether a given court has jurisdiction to preside over a given case. A jurisdictional question may be broken down into three components:
whether there is jurisdiction over the person (in personam),
whether there is jurisdiction over the subject matter, or res (in rem),
whether there is ';territorial jurisdiction';
sort of ';subsumed'; under:
whether there is jurisdiction to render the particular judgment sought, which is a kind of either over-view or subset of the above.
(Sorry, but I told you it's wierd)
The term jurisdiction is really synonymous with the word ';power';. Any court possesses jurisdiction over matters only to the extent granted to it by the Constitution, or legislation of the sovereignty on behalf of which it functions. The question of whether a given court has the power to determine a jurisdictional question is itself a jurisdictional question. Such a legal question is referred to as ';jurisdiction to determine jurisdiction.';
';Subject matter jurisdiction'; is the court's authority to decide the issue in controversy such as a contracts issue, or a civil rights issue. State courts have general jurisdiction, meaning that they can hear any controversy except those prohibited by state law (some states, for example, deny subject matter jurisdiction for a case that does not involve state citizens and did not take place in the state) and those allocated to federal courts of exclusive jurisdiction such as bankruptcy issues (see 28 U.S.C. 搂 1334). Federal courts have limited jurisdiction in that they can only hear cases that fall both within the scope defined by the Constitution in Article III Section 2 and Congressional statutes (See 28 U.S.C. 搂1251, 搂1253, 搂1331, 搂1332).
';Territorial jurisdiction'; is the court's power to bind the parties to the action. This law determines the scope of federal and state court power. ';State court territorial jurisdiction'; is determined by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment and the federal court territorial jurisdiction is determined by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution's Fifth Amendment.
Other forms of jurisdiction include appellate jurisdiction (the power of one court to correct the errors of another, lower court), concurrent jurisdiction (the notion that two courts might share the power to hear cases of the same type, arising in the same place), and diversity jurisdiction (the power of Federal courts to hear cases in which the parties are from different states). An example showing the interplay of diversity jurisdiction with subject-matter jurisdiction is Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Global Group, L. P. (02-1689), 541 U.S. 567 (2004)
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/jurisd鈥?/a>
Generally, State Court jurisdiction is conferred by the laws of the states, which also confer jurisdiction in certain matters to County Courts.
Although the details of the complex web of federal jurisdiction that Congress has given the federal courts is beyond the scope of this brief guide, it is important to understand that there are two main sources of the cases coming before the federal courts: ';federal question'; jurisdiction, and ';diversity'; jurisdiction.
In general, federal courts may decide cases that involve the United States government, the United States Constitution or federal laws, or controversies between states or between the United States and foreign governments. A case that raises such a ';federal question'; may be filed in federal court. Examples of such cases might include a claim by an individual for entitlement to money under a federal government program such as Social Security, a claim by the government that someone has violated federal laws, or a challenge to actions taken by a federal agency.
A case also may be filed in federal court based on the ';diversity of citizenship'; of the litigants, such as between citizens of different states, or between United States citizens and those of another country. To ensure fairness to the out-of-state litigant, the Constitution provides that such cases may be heard in a federal court. An important limit to diversity jurisdiction is that only cases involving more than $75,000 in potential damages may be filed in a federal court. Claims below that amount may only be pursued in state court. Moreover, any diversity jurisdiction case regardless of the amount of money involved may be brought in a state court rather What is the difference between a state and federal case?
A state case is one heard in a state court, under state laws. A federal case is one heard in a federal court, under federal laws.
