Blog entry from

By: David Williams Russell

A. Introduction.

The question of Internet jurisdiction - or of what acts or conduct outside a state of the United States may lead to a company’s or individual’s involvement in litigation in such state - is a confusing one. It is confusing because, on the one hand, the federal courts are charged with the responsibility of making sure that state courts do not extend their jurisdiction too far outside their borders. State courts, on the other hand, tend to take the attitude that they will hear all cases brought before them, and presume jurisdiction - often conclusively.
Fortunately, federal law trumps state law in this “due process” area. Federal courts often wind up with state lawsuits involving citizens of different states by reason of their jurisdiction over many diversity of citizenship cases and the concomitant right of an out of state person or company to remove state court cases brought against them to the federal courts. Accordingly, federal courts do, in fact, exert some policing pressure to limit the zeal of state courts to hear cases against all out of state defendants - no matter how remote.

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