Civil Litigation-Diversity Jurisdiction
A diversity claim is one wherein the parties are of diverse citizenship. A citizen of the state of Connecticut may sue a citizen of the state of Massachusetts in the federal court in Massachusetts. That difference or diversity of citizenship establishes one of the elements of a diversity claim. The diversity claim, however, must also involve a monetary controversy in which the amount at stake is in excess of $75,000 (not including any interest or any attorneys fees that may be claimed).
The civil jurisdiction of the federal courts is legislated by Congress. Congress has chosen to limit the overall civil jurisdiction of the federal courts. The logic is that civil litigants can always go into state court to resolve their disputes, and as such the federal courts should be reserved only for certain types of disputes. Disputes between citizens of different states may be subject to some local or regional prejudice if brought in state court, and therefore Congress has decided that these types of civil claims, provided they meet the monetary amount set forth above, can be brought in federal court in order to avoid the potential prejudice or bias.
