Personal Jurisdiction Flashcards
What is personal jurisdiction? What are the three steps for determining PJ?
Concerns a court’s power over the parties (the test is whether court has party over defendant(s))
1. Whether PJ falls within state (long arm) statute
2. Whether PJ is constitutional (satisfies due process)
Analysis of PJ is same for state and federal courts.
By filing case, P consents to personal jurisdiction. But what about D?
What are long-arm statutes?
Every state has long arm statute granting PJ over nonresidents who perform/cause certain things within the state.
Some statutes say courts can exercise PJ to full extent of Constitution, so we only need to do constitutional test (California)
Other statutes specify laundry-list of specific situations where PJ is authorized (ex. commit tort in state; enter contract in state)
When is PJ constitutional? What are the three major factors?
When D has relevant minimum contacts with forum (state) so that PJ doesn’t offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.
(1) Contact: Contact must result from D’s purposeful availment (voluntary act), either from targeting the forum or causing an effect in the forum such that it is foreseeable that D could be sued in forum.
(2) Relatedness:
* Specific (long arm) PJ: P’s claim arises from or relates to D’s contact with forum (ex. “arises from” - D’s contact harmed P; “relates to” can be used when D has sustantial contact w/forum)
* General PJ: D is at home in the forum (domicile for humans) + service of process
(3) Fairness (specific PJ only): Assess whether PJ would be fair or reasonable under the circumstances:
* Burden on D and witnesses
* State’s interest
* Plaintiff’s interest
Contact examples
* Marketing product in forum
* Using roads in forum
* Establishing domicile in forum
* Traveling in forum
* Sending tortious email into forum (without being physically present in state)
* Maintaining interactive website within forum that targets customers/readers in forum
When can you get general jurisdiction over a defendant?
(a) D is “at home” (domiciled) in the state
(b) D is served with process in that state
What is “at home” for humans vs. corporations?
Human beings: where they’re domiciled
Corporations:
* (1) state in which it’s incorporated
* (2) state in which it has principal place of business
Limits on In Personam Jurisdiction
What factors must be considered to determine whether PJ is fair/reasonable? Do you consider them for specific PJ or general PJ or both?
(Specific PJ only)
Burden on D and Witnesses: D must show that the forum puts her at a severe disadvantage in the litigation (difficult to meet)
State’s Interest: forum state may have interest in trying a case where its citizens are allegedly being harmed by out-of-state defendants
Plaintiff’s Interest: P is maybe injured in forum state and/or wants to sue at home (would it be hard for P to litigation in D’s state?)
Is the relative wealth of the plaintiffs and defendants determinative?
No, the fact that P might have more money and could easily afford to litigate in D’s state (whereas D has no money to litigate in P’s state) is NOT determinative of PJ.
What is CA’s statutory analysis for personal jurisdiction?
CA’s long arm statute extends PJ to the constitutional limit (aka just do constitutional analysis)
