Not here, but there: the evolving landscape of persona! Jurisdiction.

• Author: McOmber, Elisabeth M.
• Position: Legal Brief

For a civil lawsuit to proceed, a court must have jurisdiction over the case and parties. A plaintiff chooses the initial court in which to file suit. The plaintiff naturally will select the place believed to be most favorable. But a defendant may be able to challenge the court's personal jurisdiction over it. Simply put, not every court is the right place to bring a particular lawsuit.

Jurisdiction types

There are two overall types of jurisdiction: subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction. Subject matter jurisdiction is jurisdiction by the court to hear the type of case. For instance, patent and bankruptcy cases can only be heard in federal courts. Personal jurisdiction refers to jurisdiction by the court over the particular parties involved in the case. A court might have proper jurisdiction over a local defendant, but not over one based somewhere else that does no business in the state.

Just as there are two types of overall jurisdiction, there are two sub-categories of personal jurisdiction: general and specific jurisdiction. General jurisdiction addresses whether a defendant can be sued in the courts of a state for its activities occurring anywhere. Specific jurisdiction focuses on a defendant's particular activities in a given forum state.

Updated case law

Recently, the law regarding general jurisdiction has changed significantly. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Daimler A.G. v. Bauman that a company is subject to this type of broad, "all purpose" jurisdiction only where that company is "essentially at home." Specifically, Bauman held that, absent exceptional circumstances, general jurisdiction will exist only in two places: where a company is incorporated and where it has its principal place of business.

Thus, following Bauman, merely doing some business in a state will typically not be enough to establish general jurisdiction. And in order to establish "exceptional circumstances," a plaintiff would have to show that the defendant company's activities rise to the level equal to being incorporated or having a principal place of business--a high bar under Bauman. Accordingly, after Bauman, the only way to guarantee general jurisdiction over a defendant is to bring suit in the state where a defendant is incorporated or has its principle place of business.

Another recent Supreme Court case clarified--and arguably significantly narrowed--the analysis applicable to specific jurisdiction. In Walden v. Fiore, the Supreme...