Exam 2: The Court Systems

Litigation in federal court often involves parties from different states. In addition, at least how much in dollar terms must be in controversy for a case to be heard in a federal court?

Diversity of citizenship in federal courts refers only to cases where one party is a U.S. citizen and the other party to the case is a citizen of another country.

If either state courts or federal courts have the power to hear a dispute this is known as:

All courts have general jurisdiction.

The American court system contains two interrelated systems of courts: the English-style, private law courts and the federal, public law courts.

In most federal court of appeals cases, three judges hear the appeals.

The U.S. Supreme Court is primarily:

When filing a lawsuit, the party bringing the suit must select a court that has both:

As the Supreme Court has explained, for a state to have jurisdiction over an out-of-state business there must exist:

There is (are) ____ judge(s) presiding in a court of original jurisdiction.

Federal courts have the judicial power to hear most cases involving:

The party claiming to have suffered an injury that the law can remedy is:

The Constitution requires each state court system to have appeals courts and a supreme court.

In practice, service of process (summons) is usually achieved by:

Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving:

Which of the following would NOT be subject to in rem jurisdiction:

If both parties agree, a case can be tried by a magistrate instead of a district judge. This generally happens when:

Fact Pattern 2-1 Yoshi, a Japanese citizen working in Atlanta for his Tokyo firm, decided to rent an airplane and fly himself to the Annual Catfish and Zydeco festival in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He rented a small plane to fly there. Over Alabama, thunderstorms formed. Because Yoshi was not trained to fly by instruments, he decided to land at the next airport. As he searched for a runway, Yoshi heard a loud clank followed by silence as the engine died. He tried to land in a field but crashed. While recovering in a rehabilitation center in California, Yoshi filed suit there against the Atlanta Airport and the owners of the airplane, alleging that they were negligent in their maintenance. -Refer to Fact Pattern 2-1. If Yoshi's case was tried in federal court in California, and the substantive issue of law involved was liability for the injuries arising from Yoshi's crash, the court would apply the common law of California.

If both parties to a case live in the same state and there is less than $75,000 in dispute, then no matter what the legal issue, the case must be in state court.

An en banc proceeding is when: