Northern Virginia Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Brien Roche Law Firm : Medical Malpractice, Product Liability, Car Accidents : Washington DC, North Virginia, Maryland

Once a lawsuit has been properly filed, that complaint has to be served upon the defendant. It is served either by the local sheriff, a special process server, or any other person authorized by law.  The form of service is typically personal service, meaning that the complaint and any other accompanying court process (documents) issued by the clerk of the court has to be served on the defendant in person. Some states authorize what is referred to as substituted service, meaning that in some instances, the complaint may be delivered to a member of that defendant’s household or may even be posted on the front door of the residence where the defendant is believed to live.

If the defendant cannot be found through one of those means, then there may be other forms of substituted service allowed by state law. These consist of service upon the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles in regards to an automobile accident, and in some instances, service upon the Secretary of State when the defendant is believed no longer to be living in that State. These other forms of service are governed by state law, and thus vary from state to state.

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Any person can walk into a courthouse and file a lawsuit. The party bringing that lawsuit is referred to as the plaintiff. The party being sued is referred to as the defendant. The initial document filed with the court to initiate a lawsuit may have different names, depending upon the jurisdiction where you are filing. Typically, the initial document filed with the court to initiate a civil claim is referred to as a complaint. In any complaint, you can ask for either legal relief or equitable relief. If the claim being pursued is a legal claim, then the damages being requested would consist of compensatory damages and perhaps punitive damages.

It’s the Law
Compensatory damages are designed to make a person whole from the loss he or she has suffered.

Compensatory damages are damages that are designed to compensate the plaintiff for his or her injuries. To put that another way, compensatory damages are designed to make that person whole for the loss he or she has suffered as a result of the conduct of the defendant. Punitive damages, on the other hand, are designed to punish the defendant for egregious conduct. Punitive damages are rarely awarded, and normally when they are awarded they are carefully reviewed by the court to determine the appropriateness of the award.

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Within the civil justice system there may be several divisions or offices of the court dealing with different types of issues. There may be a landlord/tenant division, a small claims division, a domestic relations division, a probate division, and a tax division. Each of those divisions deals with the types of claims associated with their name. For instance, the landlord/tenant division will deal with landlord/tenant disputes, including evictions by landlords or complaints by tenants involving failure to comply with building code requirements.

The small claims division may deal with any type of claim within a jurisdictional monetary limit. The small claims division is a type of people’s court, wherein lawyers are typically not allowed and the strict rules of evidence may not apply. The domestic relations division deals with domestic matters, including divorce, custody, alimony, child support, and adoption. The probate division deals with estate matters and guardianship matters. Finally, within a civil court there may be a general civil division that would hear all claims other than the ones mentioned above.

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Within the civil justice system there are two types of claims that can be presented and resolved by the court—law claims and equity claims. A law claim is a claim for money damages. Money damages means that the party bringing the suit (the plaintiff) is requesting that a monetary judgment be awarded against the party who is being sued (the defendant). Another type of claim that can be litigated in the civil justice system is an equity claim. In some states an equity claim is referred to as an equitable claim or a chancery claim. Equity claims are claims wherein the party bringing the suit is not necessarily asking for judgment for a monetary amount, but is asking the court to direct the other party to either do something or not to do something.

Example: A law claim might arise from an automobile accident where one party is injured and claims the injury is due to the fault of the other driver. The lawsuit may be filed requesting the court to award a monetary amount against the other party that is accused of being at fault.

An equity claim might arise when one neighbor is seeking to enjoin (or prevent) another neighbor from building an extension of their home onto the first neighbor’s property. To prevent that type of encroachment, a lawsuit would be filed requesting an injunction. If the court granted that request, then an injunction would be issued preventing that activity.

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There are two types of cases—criminal and civil. A federal judge may one day conduct a complex civil trial and the next day preside over a routine federal criminal case. There is no distinct demarcation between civil court and criminal court within the federal court system. However, there may be a clear demarcation between the two in some states. There may be a specific court that is known as the criminal court, wherein only criminal cases are heard. The important thing to keep in mind is that the civil system is entirely separate and distinct from the criminal system. Indeed, the rules that apply to one in many instances have no application whatsoever to the other.

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Your constitutional rights can be restricted to some extent by state or local laws.

For instance, people have a constitutional right to peaceably assemble, but for purposes of maintaining public order, the government may require that you obtain a permit to conduct that peaceable assembly on public property. Simply because you want to peaceably assemble by calling a demonstration on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan does not mean that you have an absolute right to do that during the middle of rush hour. In that sense, your constitutional rights can be restricted to some extent by state or local laws.

In looking at a legal issue or question, the general checklist of things that you would want to ask yourself are the following.

o Is there some constitutional provision that may be involved?

o Is there any statutory law that may be controlling?

o Is there any case law dealing with this issue, and if so, what court am I going to look at in terms of determining the source of that case law? (If the issue is one that involves provisions of the U.S. Constitution, then the U.S. Supreme Court is the ultimate decisionmaker in those questions. Look at case law from that court, as well as case law from any of the lower federal courts. If the issue is simply one involving state statutory law, look at case law from the highest court of that state.)

o Are there any administrative rules or regulations that may be applicable?

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This concludes the section dealing with the sources of the law. To fully understand what the law is, you must know whether the law referred to is constitutional law, statutory law, case law, or administrative law. In some respects, there is a certain pecking order or hierarchy that might be applied to those different sources of the law. If a particular activity is either allowed or disallowed under the Constitution, then no statutory law, case law, or administrative law can overturn that. That is not to say, however, that all constitutional rights are necessarily absolutes.

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The legal profession itself is governed by rules and regulations published by their profession. Within every state there is an agency or entity that is responsible for publishing rules that govern the conduct of attorneys. Those rules of conduct are generally referred to as disciplinary rules. If an attorney violates a disciplinary rule, he or she may be disciplined by the state bar and subjected to certain sanctions. For example, if you were represented by an attorney and found that the attorney had done something that you considered to be highly improper, you may want to look at the disciplinary rules to see if there is something set forth there that might govern the particular behavior in question.

There are also rules of procedure designed to provide some uniformity to how lawsuits proceed. Rules of civil procedure:

* define what should be contained within a set of suit papers initiating a lawsuit (also called a complaint);
* define how a complaint is to be served;
* set forth what affirmative defenses may be raised by a defendant;
* set forth a variety of rules governing the discovery process; and,
* set forth the procedures by which a judgment of a court may be reviewed by the trial court.

Rules of criminal procedure govern how a defendant is to be dealt with in terms of the initial charging, his or her right to be informed of the charge, what rights he or she may have in terms of discovery, and how the eventual trial will proceed.

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These rules and regulations can be very important. Suppose you wanted to assert a claim against a motel owner because of carbon monoxide poisoning that occurred while you were in the motel. The type of claim that would be asserted would be a civil claim (law claim) for money damages based upon the negligence of that motel owner. There may, however, be regulations published by the state agency that controls the motel/hotel industry that set forth certain standards as to how motels are to maintain gas producing appliances, as to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. The regulations published by that state agency could be extremely helpful in pursuing a civil claim against that motel owner.

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At the federal level, all regulations are published within the Federal Register. They are also contained within a document known as the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.). The C.F.R. can be found in a law library and is generally organized in numerical fashion to correspond (to the extent possible) with the statutory code sections that they are designed to interpret and expand upon.

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The regulations that are adopted by administrative agencies have the effect of law.

The regulations published by the administrative agencies are designed to be an explanation and an elaboration of the statutes that the agency is charged with enforcing. Theoretically, there should never be a situation in which there is a conflict between what the statute says and what the regulations set forth by the agency say. If there were such a direct conflict, then the statute would be controlling. The regulations are designed to flesh out the statutory scheme. You may think of the statutes as being the skeleton and the regulations as being the meat on the bones.

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The rule making process consists of the following four steps.

1. The agency publishes proposed rules.

2. Members of the public are given the opportunity to comment on those rules.

3. The rules may be revised based upon the public’s comments.

4. The final rules are enacted.

The document where these rules are published is known as the Federal Register. The Federal Register is a publication put out by the Government Printing Office that contains all of the proposed and adopted rules and regulations of the federal agencies.

As discussed earlier, there may be administrative agencies within the legislative and judicial branches of government. For instance, the General Accounting Office is an independent administrative agency created by Congress and charged with investigating all matters related to the receipt, disbursement, and use of public money. At the state level within the judicial branch of government, there may be an administrative agency, known as the state bar, charged with the responsibility of administering and supervising the legal profession. As an administrative agency within the judicial branch of government, a state bar is subject to the control of the highest court of that state.

The regulations that are adopted by administrative agencies have the effect of law. They are designed to expand on laws created by legislative bodies. The legislative bodies that enact the statutory law try to be as precise as possible in terms of writing the statutes. However, the statutes are often somewhat general because the legislative body simply does not have the expertise or, in some cases, the time to enact statutes that deal with all of the nitty-gritty issues that may arise within that subject area. The administrative agencies generally have the expertise and the time to publish regulations that are much more precise and that deal with the nitty-gritty issues that the agency confronts.

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Another facet of the law is what is referred to as administrative law. At both the state and federal level, there are administrative agencies. Most of those agencies are part of the executive branch of government. As discussed in the material dealing with constitutional law, our government is divided into three branches—the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch.

The executive branch is headed by the president at the federal level and by the governor at the state level. The judicial branch at the federal level is headed by the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. At the state level, the Judicial branch is headed by the chief justice of the highest court of that state, which in most instances is referred to as the Supreme Court (although in some states, it may be referred to as the Court of Appeals).

Within the legislative branch, there typically is no one person who is the head of that branch. At the federal level, the legislature is bi-cameral, meaning that it consists of two bodies. Those two bodies are the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Speaker of the House is the leader of that legislative body. The President Pro Tempore is the leader of the Senate. At the state level, there may be the same general type of organization within the legislative branch.

You may be asking yourself, What do the above comments have to do with administrative rules or regulations? Although most administrative rules and regulations are set forth by administrative agencies within the executive branch, there may be administrative agencies within the judicial branch or the legislative branch that could set forth rules and regulations of their own.

The administrative agencies that most of us are probably familiar with are federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Communications Commission. Some of these federal agencies are cabinet-level agencies, meaning that the heads of those agencies are members of the President’s cabinet.

Others may be considered to be independent agencies. For instance, the Federal Election Commission is an independent agency that has the specific responsibility of overseeing compliance with the federal election laws by presidential candidates and other candidates at the national level. Another independent agency is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is charged with the responsibility of overseeing the use of nuclear power in the nonmilitary arena.

These agencies generally have the authority to issue regulations. These regulations in some instances may be referred to as rules. Although there is a technical distinction between a rule and a regulation, for purposes of this discussion they are treated as being one and the same. These administrative agencies are created by acts of Congress and are given a specific purpose as set forth in the U.S. Code. The agencies are also given the authority to write and publish rules and regulations that will govern its conduct.

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The importance of case law from various courts, to some extent, has to be evaluated based upon the status of the court that rendered the decision. This refers to the precedent value the case holds over other courts.

For instance, a decision rendered by a trial judge in the Hanover County Superior Court in North Carolina may be of great interest nationwide, but it is not binding on anyone other than the parties in that particular case. If that case, however, is appealed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and a written decision is rendered, then that case law becomes binding to every person in North Carolina as the law of the state. If that case is then appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court, then the decision rendered by the North Carolina Supreme Court becomes the law of North Carolina and is binding upon all litigants in the North Carolina State Court System.

If that case involved a constitutional or federal issue, it may be further appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. A decision by the Supreme Court is binding upon the entire nation.

In the federal system, a decision rendered by a United States District Court judge is typically only binding upon the litigants in that case. However, if that case is appealed from the United States District Court to the United States Court of Appeals for that circuit, then the decision rendered by that United States Court of Appeals becomes binding upon all of the persons within that federal circuit. For instance, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals includes the states of Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Any decision rendered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is binding upon all persons within that five state area.

It is quite possible that the United States Circuit Court for the Eleventh Circuit could decide a case with similar issues and come up with an opposite conclusion. Typically, when a conflict exists between circuits, the issue will be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide how to resolve the conflict between the circuits.

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Written decisions rendered within the state court system are found in regional reporters. The publishing house that is responsible for publishing state court decisions has essentially divided the United States into regions. For instance, Illinois is contained within the North Eastern Region. As such, a decision by the Illinois Supreme Court that is reported in written form could be found both in the state reporter, known as the Illinois Official Supreme Reporter, and also in the regional reporter, known as the North Eastern Reporter. The decision of Jones v. Smith from the Supreme Court of Illinois discussed earlier would be reported under the same name with the following citation: 208 Ill. 2d 450, 804 N.E.2d 480 (2004). The decision then would be found in volume 208 of the Illinois Official Supreme Reporter at page 450 and would also be found in the regional reporter known as the North Eastern Reporter at volume 804, page 480. Again, the year refers to the year when the decision was rendered.

Written decisions from trial courts at the state court level frequently are not published by any publishing house. To the extent they are available at all, they may only be available within that local court house. Some states have adopted trial court reporting systems wherein certain written decisions that are presented to them may be published. In the state of Virginia there is a publication known as Circuit Court Opinions, which consists of written decisions made by circuit court judges in the state of Virginia. Those decisions, however, are only published if either the judge or one of the attorneys forwards that written decision to the publishing firm.

Courts either at the state or federal level are charged principally with resolving disputes that are presented to them and in that context, render interpretations of state or federal statutes or state or federal constitutional provisions. Any decision rendered by a trial court judge is subject to being reviewed and potentially overturned by the appellate court that has appellate jurisdiction over that trial court. For instance, in the federal system, any decision rendered by a United States District Court is subject to appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for that circuit. The United States District Court judge may have rendered a written decision.

That decision then can be reviewed by the judges in the United States Circuit Court for that circuit, and those judges on the circuit court can either agree or disagree with the decision from the United States District Court. The decision rendered by the United States Court of Appeals likewise may be appealed to the United States Supreme Court. If the U.S. Supreme Court exercises its discretion and decides to hear the case, then the U.S. Supreme Court can either uphold or reverse that decision.

At the state court level the same procedure applies. Any decision rendered by a trial court can be appealed to the appellate court that has jurisdiction. The appellate court can then either uphold or reverse the trial court decision. The high court within that state generally has the last word on those cases that are initially tried within that state. However, if the case involves an issue of federal or constitutional law, then the U.S. Supreme Court can decide to hear a case from the state court system.

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Case law for the most part comes from appellate courts. The appellate courts may be intermediate courts or they may be the high court of that state or court system. For instance, there is an abundance of case law rendered by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Likewise, there is a wealth of decisions rendered by the United States Supreme Court.

The decisions of the appellate courts are contained within various bound volumes published by different law publishing companies. A written decision rendered by a United States District Court judge may be published in legal books known as the Federal Supplement (abbreviated F. Supp.).

Example: A decision rendered by a United States District Court judge is generally referred to by the name of the parties, e.g., Jones v. Smith, 317 F. Supp. 2d 820 (N.D.IL. 2004). That case would then be found in volume 317 of the Federal Supplement Second beginning on page 820. The parenthetical means that it is a decision from a United States District judge in the Northern District of Illinois, that was rendered in 2004.

NOTE: The volumes are put into series and when they reach a certain number, generally 999, the numbering begins again at one. That is why you will find a 2d or 3d in the citation.

Decisions rendered by a United States Circuit Court of Appeals are found in law books known as the Federal Reporter. For instance, a decision rendered by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit could be reported at 356 F.3d 121 (9th Circ. 2004). That citation means that the decision was rendered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2004 and can be found in Volume 356 of the Federal Reporter Third Series at page 121.

Decisions from the United States Supreme Court may be reported in three different reporting systems, all of which are published by different publishing houses. For instance, a decision from the United States Supreme Court would frequently be referred to as Jones v. Smith 535 U.S. 85, 125 S. Ct. 25, 159 L. Ed. 2d 125 (2004). That decision would be found in any one of those three volumes with the first volume being referred to as the United States Reporter, Case Law 23 Volume 535, page 85. That same decision can also be found in the Supreme Court Reporter, in Volume 125, page 25 and would also be found in the Lawyer’s Edition Second Series in volume 159, page 125. The year refers to the year when the decision was rendered.

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The case law referred to earlier in this chapter consists of the written decisions of the various courts. Typically, trial courts do not generate case law. Even though a trial court judge may issue a written opinion (also called a decision) in a given case, that decision has very limited application. Decisions rendered by trial judges are only binding in regard to that specific case. They do not necessarily have any controlling effect upon any other trial judge within that trial court and do not have any controlling effect on any trial judge in any other trial court. Trial courts are the lowest tribunal and as such any written decisions rendered by trial court judges are of limited application.

Many cases decided by trial courts are decided by juries. Juries do not render written decisions explaining their analysis of the case, but rather simply render a verdict. That verdict in a civil case would be either in favor of the plaintiff or in favor of the defendant. If the verdict is in favor of the plaintiff and there is an amount of money being sought by the plaintiff, then the jury would fix the amount of the monetary award (i.e., value the damages). If there is no jury deciding the case, then the judge may enter a verdict or a judgment order fixing the amount of damages or granting one party the form of relief that is sought.

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The state court systems vary dramatically from state to state. Some states have a single trial court. In these states, the trial court is generally referred to as a court of general jurisdiction, wherein all civil and criminal cases are initiated.

Other states have what is referred to as a two-tier trial court system. In the state of Virginia, the lowest trial court is the General District Court. That court hears all criminal misdemeanor cases and can also hear all civil cases wherein the amount claimed is less than $15,000. (A misdemeanor is a crime wherein the potential penalty is no more than one year in jail.) There are no juries in the General District Court. Any case that is heard in the General District Court may then be appealed to the Circuit Court, where the party bringing the appeal is entitled to a new trial (referred to as a trial de novo). In the Circuit Court either party can request a jury trial. The Circuit Court is a court of general jurisdiction, meaning that virtually any type of case can be brought within the circuit court.

Many states also have what is referred to as an intermediate court of appeals. That intermediate court of appeals is essentially the equivalent of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, except that the state intermediate court of appeals only hears appeals from the state trial courts. These intermediate courts of appeals generally will hear any case that is appealed to them. However, in some states the intermediate courts of appeals are courts of limited jurisdiction and may have authority to only hear certain types of cases.

The highest court in most states is referred to as the Supreme Court, but some states may refer to their highest court by a different name. That high court may be a court of discretionary appeal, meaning that they exercise discretion as to which cases they will hear, much like the U.S. Supreme Court. These courts of appeal, whether they be intermediate or supreme, do not actually try cases, but simply review briefs and records submitted to them by the attorneys, then hear oral arguments and make a decision.

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It is important to make a clear distinction in your mind between criminal cases and civil cases. A criminal case is, in essence, a lawsuit brought by the government acting through a prosecutor against an individual who is accused of violating a criminal statute. For instance, if you deface a federal building, you may be charged with a federal crime in a federal courthouse. Or if you punch your next door neighbor in the nose on private property, you most likely would be charged with a violation of a state criminal statute. It would be tried in state court before a state court judge, and you would have the right to have a jury present, with that jury being drawn from the cities, counties, or towns where that court had jurisdiction. (Chapter 6 addresses the criminal process in both the state court and federal court systems in greater detail.)

A civil case, on the other hand, does not involve any criminal penalty. A civil case involves a claim for monetary relief or a claim for equitable relief. For instance, if you are injured in an automobile accident, you may have a right to sue that other party for monetary damages seeking compensation for your medical expenses, loss of income, and pain and suffering. In a claim seeking equitable relief, you are asking the court to order the other party to either do or not do something. For example, you may sue your next door neighbors to enjoin, or prevent, them from extending their home onto your private property. In that case, you are not asking for money damages but for an order to enjoin your neighbors from constructing their home on your private property. There are a wide variety of civil cases that may be instituted. (Chapter 5 addresses civil litigation in both the state and federal court system.)

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The federal court system is somewhat more integrated than the state courts because the federal courts do not necessarily recognize state boundaries in terms of their authority. The federal courts consist of the Supreme Court, circuit, and district courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court is the most important federal court. It sits in Washington, D.C., and is composed of nine judges, or justices, who are nominated by the president and then approved by the Senate. The sitting justices are all attorneys, and in fact, most of them are former judges from lower courts who have been elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, there is no requirement that a U.S. Supreme Court justice be an attorney.

The United States Supreme Court is a court of discretionary appeal. That means it exercises its discretion in deciding which cases it will hear. As a court of appeal, it does not actually try cases,
but rather, it simply reviews legal briefs as submitted by attorneys or litigants. It hears oral arguments that are limited to an hour or two and thereafter renders a written decision. The U.S. Supreme Court does not actually hear from witnesses, hear evidence, or resolve factual disputes as might be done by a jury. Rather, it simply reviews the record presented from the trial that occurred in the lower court, and then determines whether or not there was a procedural, evidentiary, or constitutional error committed at the trial court level.

In order to have a case presented to the U.S. Supreme Court, the party who is requesting the hearing must first file a petition. If the petition is denied, the case will not be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. If the petition is granted, the nine justices will hear the appeal and render a decision. Thousands of cases are appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court every year, but only a very small percentage of them are actually heard.

Example: In the 2002 term, 8,255 cases were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the U.S. Supreme Court only issued written decisions in seventy-nine cases.

The federal court system is essentially shaped like a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court is, as its name suggests, supreme and is final in
the sense that it is the court of last resort. There is no higher court. Below the U.S. Supreme Court are eleven U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. The United States is divided into eleven numbered federal circuits, plus two additional circuits designated the D.C. Circuit and the Federal Circuit. (See map on page 18). Within each of those circuits is a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. These courts hear appeals from either the trial court below or from certain federal agencies that have a right of direct appeal to the U.S. Circuit Courts.

These U.S. Circuit Courts are somewhat similar to the U.S. Supreme Court in that they are simply courts of appeal. The U.S. Circuit Courts do not actually try cases—they do not hear evidence, the litigants do not testify in front of them, and they do not typically resolve factual questions as would be done by a jury. The U.S. Courts of Appeals simply review briefs submitted to them by attorneys, then hear oral argument from the attorneys, and thereafter render a written decision or issue an order either affirming, modifying, or overruling the decision from the trial court.

The diagram is designed to show in a general framework the layout of the court system on both the federal level and the state level.

Below the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals are the U.S. District Courts, which are the trial courts within the federal system. The United States is divided into ninety-four federal districts. For instance, in the state of Virginia there are two federal districts: the Eastern District of Virginia and the Western District of Virginia. In the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, there are several different divisions that are part of that federal district. A division simply means that there is a courthouse located in that locality to serve the counties or cities within proximity of that courthouse.

The United States District Courts are presided over by United States District judges, who are nominated by the President to their position and then approved by the Senate. There may also be
magistrates within the United States District Court, who are judicial officers with the authority to hear certain types of cases assigned to them by the United States District judge.

The United States District Court as a trial court is a court of limited jurisdiction, meaning that it has only limited authority to hear certain types of cases. In the criminal area, the United States District Courts can only hear cases that involve any federal crime (i.e., a violation of federal law). For instance, referring back to the Rodney King case, the police officers in that case were charged with a violation of federal civil rights law. They were tried in a United States District Court before a United States District Court judge with a jury that was composed of citizens within that United States district.

United States District Courts, as courts of limited jurisdiction, can only hear cases that involve either a question of federal law (federal question) or that involve disputes between citizens of different states. This latter requirement, dealing with citizens of different states, is known as diversity jurisdiction in the federal courts. For example, a citizen of the state of Connecticut may
sue a citizen of the state of Mississippi in the United States District Court of Mississippi relating to an automobile accident that occurred in Ohio.

Federal law not only requires that there be diversity of citizenship, but also that the amount sued for (the amount in controversy) be at least $75,000. As such, if you were involved in an automobile accident in the state of Texas while you were a citizen of Texas and the other party likewise was a citizen of Texas, you could not bring that suit in federal court because there is no diversity of citizenship. If, on the other hand, the other party to the automobile accident was driving a United States postal truck, the case would be brought in the United States District Court, since it is a claim against the U.S. Government based on a federal statute (e.g., the Federal Tort Claims Act).

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