Background/Facts: Determining jurisdiction in the courts can be confusing and complicated, but it is an important legal doctrine that businesses cannot ignore. Jurisdiction can affect business operations and determine business decisions, such as where the business is located and where and how to advertise and market the business. Where there are questions about possible jurisdiction in the courts, companies should consult an attorney.
TLG’s client, Clean, is facing other litigation and needs advice.
Clean is located in Maryland, but it advertises aggressively in all Mid-Atlantic States of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia via the internet, social media, television, and mailings.
Recently Clean contracted with ABC Corporation (ABC), incorporated in Virginia, to clean ABC’s offices in Norfolk, Virginia. ABC paid for the cleaning and sanitizing services but later was dissatisfied with the services and sued Clean in Virginia to recover the cleaning costs. ABC is trying to decide whether it should file the case in Virginia or Maryland state court.
Applying the concept of personal jurisdiction to the scenario facts, discuss why you agree or disagree that the Virginia court has personal jurisdiction over Clean.
Applying the concept of personal jurisdiction to the scenario facts, discuss whether the Maryland court has personal jurisdiction over Clean.
Use these Sources for references only
Chapter 1 – Introduction to Law and the Legal System
Chapter 3: Courts and the Legal Process
Chapter 4: Constitutional Law and U.S. Commerce
Civil v. Criminal Law
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
Jurisdiction: Definitions and Examples
Jurisdiction and Internet Sales
Police Powers of States
Examples of Police Powers of States
The U.S. Constitution
Introduction to the U.S. Legal and Court Systems, Jurisdiction, Constitutional Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Introduction to Law and Legal Systems
The legal system is a complex set of rules that provide a framework of predictability and reasonable consistency and continuity for persons and businesses. All laws have a purpose. Generally, laws maintain order in Society, protect persons and property, provide guidelines for acceptable, mandatory and prohibited conduct, and establish parameters for handling personal affairs as well as for business transactions and operations. Laws are dynamic and evolve to reflect changes in Societal needs, interests and demands. The primary sources of US law include: the US Constitution, state constitutions, state statutes, federal statutes, administrative law, treaties, and Common Law (also called case law). US law is divided into two categories, (1) criminal law, called public law, and (2) civil law, or private law. Criminal law governs offenses considered to be offenses against all Society in general, not just against a specific “victim”; civil law involves private disputes and offenses between individuals.
Courts and the Legal System, Jurisdiction
The US legal system is based on the old English Common Law system, and thus, the US system is often called a “common law system”, meaning we derive laws from various sources such as statutes and constitutions, but also from case decisions/rulings that are referred to as “case law”. Case law is an important source of US law that is derived from court cases in which the appropriate court reviews the facts, applies and interprets the relevant law(s) to render a decision, that is, a ruling or holding. Court decisions have the same force and effect of a law from any other source.
There is a court system for each state, plus the District of Columbia system, as well as a federal court system. These court systems include trial level courts, intermediate appellate courts, and superior/supreme courts. There are also specialty federal level courts such as US Bankruptcy Court, US Tax Court, Court of Federal Claims, and the Court of International Trade. The US Supreme Court is considered the supreme “court in the land”.
Jurisdiction refers to the legal authority of a court to hear a case and to call parties to the case into court. The three types of jurisdiction in courts are:
Original Jurisdiction– the court that gets to hear a case first.
Appellate Jurisdiction– the power for a higher court to review a lower court’s decision.
Exclusive Jurisdiction– only a specific court can hear a specific type of case.
Courts must have subject matter jurisdiction in each case it hears, as well as personal jurisdiction or property jurisdiction (in rem) jurisdiction in each case.
Constitutional Authority to Regulate Business
Constitutional authority of the federal and state governments to regulate private and public conduct, and to regulate business, is established in the U.S. Constitution. Article VI of the US Constitution, referred to as the “supremacy clause”, establishes the US Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and neither the US Congress nor any state may enact a law that conflicts with the US Constitution. Constitutional authority to regulate business activities comes from several sources. One source of authority derives from the Tenth Amendment that grants to the states so-called “police powers” to regulate private activities to protect the general health, safety, and welfare of the public. Another source of authority comes from Article 1, Section 8, of the US Constitution that empowers the federal government to regulate interstate, and to some extent intrastate, commerce; states are prohibited from enacting laws that unduly interfere with interstate commerce and trade. The Bill of Rights protects businesses from undue governmental interference in business activities, but also permits some restrictive regulation related to commercial speech, political speech and property searches and seizures. (Clarkson, K., Miller, R., & Cross, F., 2012, pp. 74-85)
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provides an alternative to litigation and the court system in order to resolve civil disputes. It is most useful for family disputes of all types, neighbor and property disputes, and some employment disputes; it is not appropriate for all types of cases. ADR is advantageous because it can be more flexible, less costly, and less time consuming than litigation. Types of ADR include negotiation, mediation, non-binding arbitration, and binding arbitration. With the exception of binding arbitration agreements in labor and business contracts, parties to a dispute may participate in ADR, but retain the legal right to go to court if they are not satisfied with the recommendation/outcome of ADR, or cannot agree to a final resolution of the dispute in an ADR process.
Reference: Clarkson, K., Miller, R., & Cross, F. (2012), Business Law Text and Cases. Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
To assist you in completing consulting assignments for TLG, it is important to review some basic concepts relevant to the legal system and constitutional law.
First, review the concept of federalism, the court system, and common law v. civil law, and the nature of law and the legal process.
Some important points are:
the primary purpose of the law is to establish a set of rules and guidelines for society to promote order and to create parameters for acceptable and prohibited behavior;
laws are inevitably subject to interpretation and reinterpretation by courts;
laws must be reasonably specific, and yet sufficiently general, with inherent flexibility, to withstand the rigors of interpretation and the “test of time”;
laws that strike a balance as described in (3) above, usually endure as relevant, applicable rules, even with societal changes and reinterpretations; (example: the U.S. Constitution has withstood the test of time, partly because of an inherent balance of specificity, generality, and flexibility)
laws are promulgated and interpreted by human beings, and thus, are imperfect;
some laws have a worthy purpose, but are difficult to adequately enforce i.e. speed limit laws;
all laws are not necessarily ethical; some conduct can be legal, but considered unethical;
U.S. law has a very dominant protective purpose – protecting all citizens, as well as providing special protections for certain groups of people, in certain circumstances, i.e., minors;
fairness to all is a primary goal of the law, but what is fair to one group may be unfair to another group; what is fair in one situation may be unfair in another situation – every right granted to an individual or group, to some extent, impinges on the rights of another individual or group;
the familiar symbol for law and the legal system is the Scale of Justice showing a blindfolded lady that represents the weighing and balancing process necessary to balance rights v. restrictions granted and imposed by laws.
legislatures enacting laws, and courts interpreting laws, must weigh and balance the right(s) granted v. the rights restricted by a specific law to determine if the law is justifiable and fair – this weighing and balancing involves determining if there a compelling public interest or purpose for the law that justifies granting certain rights while restricting other rights;
example: highway speed limit laws protect everyone (drivers, passengers, and pedestrians), but also restrict the freedom of drivers to drive at a speed of their choice – on balance, the restriction is easily justified as there is an important purpose in protecting drivers, passengers, and pedestrians
example: laws that prohibit alcohol consumption/purchase by minors grant rights to those 21 years and older, and restrict rights of those under 21 years – on balance, society, legislatures, and courts have determined this law is justified as Society has a strong public interest in protecting minors who may not have reached a level of maturity and judgment to handle the right to choose to consume/purchase alcohol
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