Three Types of Personal Jurisdiction

In Days 1-4, you learned about one kind of jurisdiction, called federal court subject matter jurisdiction.  The question was whether a federal district court could exercise power over a certain type of dispute.  We assumed throughout that a state court, some state court, could always exercise power over that type of dispute.  There was, however, little in those discussions about where, geographically, the lawsuit could take place.

To understand the importance of geography, imagine that a driver from Florida hits a pedestrian from Florida in Miami.  The pedestrian sues the driver in a state court in . . . Alaska.  We know that cannot be OK, at least, not unless the Florida driver consents to a lawsuit in Alaska.  But why not?

In the remainder of Day 5 and in all of Days 6, 7, and 8, we will learn about a doctrine called "Jurisdiction over the Person or Property," sometimes just called, "Personal Jurisdiction."  It governs the geographic limits on a court's power.

One more thing:  Days 1-4 concerned the power of federal courts.  Again, we assumed at all times that state courts could hear disputes involving any subject matter.  So, the focus was on federal courts.  For Personal Jurisdiction, we will learn that (for purposes of this course), the power of a federal court in North Carolina is pretty much the same as that of a state court in North Carolina.  So, this module is far more about geography than it is about state versus federal courts.