Personal Jurisdiction: Where Can You Sue a Defendant?
When you have an injury that is caused by someone else’s negligence, you may wonder who to sue. But did you ever think of where to sue? You can’t just sue anybody, anywhere, and in some cases, a concept called personal jurisdiction can create problems in your injury case.
Minimum Contacts
As a general rule, a state court can only hear a case regarding someone who has what is known as minimum contacts with that state. That means someone must do business in or be present in the State of Florida or have property or contract here for a court to have jurisdiction over them.
In most cases, this isn’t an issue. A driver who hits you is obviously driving in Florida (no matter where they may live permanently). The store or property you fell in if it’s located in Florida has minimum contacts in Florida and can be sued here.
But there are times when there may be a party liable for your accident or injury, which isn’t located in Florida, and which doesn’t intend to do business here in Florida. In order for a Florida court to have jurisdiction over these kinds of Defendants, they have to do business in, or expose themselves to, or make money from, the State of Florida or its residents, on a substantial, ongoing basis—not just a one time or isolated incident.
Is it Foreseeable?
Another way to think of this is whether or not a reasonable defendant could foresee, or anticipate that it could be sued in Florida, if there was a problem. So, a company that advertises products to the residents of Florida, and sells things to the residents of Florida, can foresee that it could be sued in Florida.
On the other hand, someone who sells a product, or a product that goes into another product, in another state, and which doesn’t sell or advertise to Florida, may never anticipate that their product could end up here in Florida and injure someone.
Mostly in Products Liability
Many issues involving personal jurisdiction have to do with products liability cases because often, manufacturers of larger or more complex products, have items or parts in them manufactured by companies that don’t anticipate their product ending up in Florida.
Imagine that a company works on repairing a golf cart in the state of Nevada for another Nevada resident. The resident moves to Florida with the golf cart, which malfunctions, and injures a Florida resident. The Nevada repair company, which did the repair in Nevada on a Nevada product, may have no idea that the golf cart would ever be shipped to and used in Florida, and thus, would challenge a Florida court’s jurisdiction to determine its liability for the victim’s injuries.
When Defendants challenge jurisdiction, the court will hold a hearing, to see how much contact the Defendant has with the State of Florida. Losing that hearing could mean that you have to bring your lawsuit in another state.
Where can your case be filed? Let us help. Contact the Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian and schedule a consultation today if you have been injured in an accident.
Sources:
constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt14-S1-7-1-1/ALDE_00000907/#:~:text=Personal%20jurisdiction%20or%20in%20personam,Black’s%20Law%20Dictionary%20(10th%20ed.
law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/CIV%20PRO%20OUTLINE%202.pdf
