Civil procedure
Diversity Jurisdiction
Diversity jurisdiction lets a federal court hear a state-law case because the opposing parties are citizens of different states and more than $75,000 is at stake.
Diversity must be complete: no plaintiff may share a state with any defendant. A corporation is a citizen of both the state where it is incorporated and the state of its principal place of business, while the citizenship of an LLC follows each of its members, which trips up plenty of removals.
The amount in controversy is measured at filing and from the plaintiff's perspective, and courts accept the pleaded number unless it is legally impossible to recover that much.
Because citizenship is measured at filing, later changes do not destroy jurisdiction. A plaintiff who moves states mid-case does not send it back, which is why the parties' addresses in the complaint matter more than where anyone lives by the time of trial.
How it appears on a docket
The docket header shows Jurisdiction: Diversity, Cause: 28:1332 Diversity-Breach of Contract.
Governing rule
28 U.S.C. Sec. 1332
Related terms
- Federal Question Jurisdiction — Federal question jurisdiction is a federal court's power to hear a case that arises under the Constitution, a federal statute, or a treaty.
- Removal — Removal is a defendant moving a case out of state court into federal court by filing a notice of removal.
More on civil procedure
See this term in a real case
Search federal court records and read the filings where diversity jurisdiction actually shows up. New to federal dockets? Start with how to find a federal case.