jurisdiction comes from the Latin terms juris, meaning “law,” and diction,
meaning “to speak.” A useful way to understand jurisdiction is to think of it as referring to
courts’ power to hear cases and render decisions that bind the parties before them
Trial courts, or courts of original jurisdiction, have the power to hear and decide cases
when they first enter the legal system. In these courts, the parties present evidence and call
witnesses to testify. Most state court systems refer to trial courts as courts of common pleas
or county courts. The federal system calls them district courts.
Courts of appellate jurisdiction, or appellate courts, have the power to review
previous judicial decisions to determine whether trial courts erred in their decisions.
Appellate courts do not hold trials. Rather, appellate judges review transcripts of trial
court proceedings and occasionally consider additional oral and written arguments from
each party.
A question of law is an issue concerning the interpretation or application of a law. In contrast, a question
of fact is a question about an event or characteristic in a case. Only judges can decide questions of law. In
a bench trial (a trial with no jury), the judge decides questions of fact; in a jury trial, the jury decides
questions of fact.
Legal Principle: The court in which a case is first heard is called the court of
original jurisdiction, and the court to which a decision made by that court is appealed
is called the court of appellate jurisdiction.
In personam jurisdiction (literally, “jurisdiction over the person”) is a court’s power to
render a decision affecting the rights of the specific persons before the court. Generally, a
court’s power to exercise in personam jurisdiction extends only over a specific geographic
region. In the state court system, a court’s in personam jurisdiction usually extends to the
state’s borders. In the federal system, on the other hand, each court’s jurisdiction extends
across its geographic district.
The complaint specifies the factual and legal basis for the lawsuit and the relief the plaintiff seeks.
The summons is a court order that notifies the defendant of the lawsuit and explains how and
when to respond to the complaint.
Service of process is the procedure by which courts present these documents to defendants.
long-arm statutes, which enable the court to serve defendants outside the state as long as the
defendant has sufficient minimum contacts within the state and it seems fair to assert long-arm
jurisdiction over him or her
in rem jurisdiction (Latin for “jurisdiction over the thing”) over the property
quasi in rem jurisdiction, or attachment jurisdiction, over a defendant’s property unrelated to the
plaintiff’s claim
Subject-matter jurisdiction is a court’s power to hear certain kinds of cases.
, Legal Principle: Concurrent jurisdiction exists whenever there is a federal question or diversity of
citizenship and at least $75,000 at issue.
venue determines which trial court in the system will hear the case. Venue is a matter of geographic
location determined by each state’s statutes.
Legal Principle: Venue is appropriate in the county where the defendant resides or where the incident
took place over which the lawsuit arose.
A person who has the legal right to bring an action in court has standing (or standing to
sue). For a person to have standing, the outcome of a case must personally affect him or her.
The case or controversy (or justiciable controversy) requirement ensures that courts do
not render advisory opinions. Three criteria are necessary for a case or controversy to
exist. First, the relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant must be adverse. Second, actual or
threatened actions of at least one of the parties must give rise to an actual
legal dispute. Third, courts must have the ability to render a decision that will resolve the
dispute. In other words, courts can give final judgments that solve existing problems; they
cannot provide rulings about hypothetical situations.
The case or controversy requirement is closely linked to the ripeness requirement. A case
is ripe if a judge’s decision can affect the parties immediately. Usually the issue of ripeness arises when
one party claims that the case is moot—in other words, there is no point in the court’s hearing the case
because no judgment can affect the situation between the parties.
Legal Principle: Before a case can be heard, it must meet the three threshold
requirements of standing, case or controversy, and ripeness.
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