Law 3220 1st Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture I Court of Original Jurisdiction II Appellate Court III Subject Courts IV Jurisdiction Outline of Current Lecture I II Chapter 2 Continued Stages of a Lawsuit a Pleading Stage b Responses to a Complaint c Discovery d Pretrial Stage e Jury Selection Current Lecture Chapter 2 Continued State has exclusive jurisdiction over federal crimes bankruptcy patents copyrights How do you know what court to bring a case to Constitutional statutes IRS gets their jurisdiction from statutes If you violate the Constitution it automatically becomes a federal matter Civil case has a plaintif Criminal case has a defendant Diversity Jurisdiction With diversity of citizenship need a case to be for more than 75 000 for it to go to federal court and be an out of state defendant Keep it in state court by suing for anything less than 75 000 Statutory Law laws of the state they re in will apply Erie vs Tomkins Man standing by train knocked down by something hanging on side of train Tomkins from Pennsylvania happened in Pennsylvania train company out of New York State trial court applied federal common law appealed to Supreme Court said that couldn t apply federal common law but actually Pennsylvania state law Tomkins was a trespasser Erie wasn t liable Contract dispute law of state where contract was made Accident dispute law of state where accident occurred If three diferent states involved People from two diferent states and happens in a third state there could be arguments for using any of the three state laws Venue Appropriate geographic location of where trial will be heard These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Could be moved for convenience of people involved etc Evidence comes strictly from witnesses problem is that with media jury might get information from elsewhere or might not get all the information Hazelwood vs Bank Missouri and Mississippi Chapter 3 What goes on in the court Basic Trial Procedure Civil case you won t go to jail Stages of a Lawsuit o 1 Pleading stage Person brings lawsuit through a summons and a complaint Without a summons you have nothing Summons give them notice of the action Gives them 30 days to answer For state procedure allege that it occurred in that state o 2 Responses to the Complaint Files an answer to the complaint Motion to Dismiss Defendant asks court to dismiss the case rarely granted Counterclaim defendant calls the suit frivolous baseless o 3 Discovery Where you find out the information the other side has Interrogatories send questions to the other party that they must answer Request to Produce Asks for pictures etc about the problem Depositions Attorney asks the witnesses questions best way to get information o 4 Pretrial stage Summary judgment motion Both sides present evidence to the judge Pretrial Conference Judge listens to the case and judge kind of reflects upon the case telling them if they need to drop anything from their evidence Conference also used to try to get sides to settle Good because judge gives opinion to the parties which could be critical to knowing where things are with the case o 5 Jury Selection Civil case have the right to request a jury Before the jury can be on a case must be qualified 1 Screened to see if they re from the right county in the right age group have any other outstanding factors that could keep you from being on the case 2 Jury panel checked over to see if they generally have any connection to the case Most states have 12 people on a jury o 6 Trial Stage Not everyone can give opinion must be an expert o Ex Man gets cancer from asbestos court didn t get expert opinion had jury judge if he was a reliable source new trial had to be given because the court failed