The illegal lien that was placed on my jointly-owned Manhattan co-op by JP Morgan Chase and an unknown party has been removed. Thus, in a way one can say I won. The most important thing I learned in that litigation is that before you file a lawsuit you must make sure that the court you file it in has both subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction over all the defendants. Subject matter jurisdiction is easy to figure out. Generally, if the lawsuit involves parties who live in different states and the amount involved is greater than $75,000, you can file your case in federal court. But meeting that first condition doesnt necessarily mean that the judge presiding over your case is going to be able to enter a judgment on the merits if that court doesnt have both subject matter- and personal jurisdiction over all the defendants. For example, if the matter involves a real estate issue, then your lawsuit must be adjudicated by a judge where the real estate is. If your lawsuit involves a tort, such as breach of fiduciary duty, personal injury, harassment, or fraud, the matter can be heard in either state or federal court provided that the judge assigned to your case finds that he or she has both subject matter- and personal jurisdiction over all the defendants. The burden of proof that the court where you file your case has both subject matter- and personal jurisdiction over all the defendants is on the plaintiff. So, before you file your case in a given forum, make sure that you are able to prove that the judge has what it takes to adjudicate your case based on its merits. In order to have personal jurisdiction over a defendant, the defendant must be either domiciled in the state where the court is or that the long-arm statute of that state allows you to force the out-of-state resident to defend the case where you filed it after serving each defendant with your complaint. Most importantly, you must remember that for an out-of-state defendant, either an individual or a corporation, that party must have minimum contacts with the state where you file the case in. If the Court where you file your lawsuit cannot be satisfied with the proof that you have about the required minimum contacts for a particular defendant, the Court can either transfer your case or dismiss it with prejudice for any defendant that you cant provide proof to the judge that he or she has both subject matter- and personal jurisdiction over even if you otherwise have a valid case against a particular defendant. Lastly, each cause of action that you file against your opponents on your complaint must contain specific allegations to satisfy all the required elements for that particular part of your lawsuit. If you, unfortunately, fail to state specific facts to support each element for that cause of action, your entire case can be thrown out of court or any given cause of action that fails to meet the necessary requirements can meet the same fate. The Court will usually allow the plaintiff to amend his or her complaint up to three times, provided the proposed amendment is not futile. The Plaintiff has an unfettered right to amend his or her complaint at least once without leave of the court, but any further amendment than that requires leave of the Court, which means that the plaintiff must file a motion asking the Court for leave to amend by attaching the proposed amendment to the motion. In the state of Missouri, where I reside, by statute the plaintiff can amend his or her complaint more than three times as long as the defendants have not provided a required answer to a pleading. Once all the defendants in a lawsuit answers the plaintiffs complaint, however, then the plaintiff can only amend the complaint once without leave of the Court. The legal term used to refer to the phase the lawsuit is in after all the defendants have answered the Plaintiffs complaint is that issue has been joined, meaning that the lawsuit is ready to proceed onto the next phase, which is discovery.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:28:57 +0000
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