Legal Definitions - jurisdictional amount

Jurisdictional amount, also known as the amount in controversy, refers to the total monetary value of the relief a plaintiff is seeking in a lawsuit. This value is crucial because it helps determine which court has the legal authority, or jurisdiction, to hear the case. It includes not only direct financial damages but also the estimated monetary worth of non-monetary remedies, such as an order for someone to do or stop doing something (an injunction).

The specific jurisdictional amount required varies depending on the court system and the type of case. For instance, federal courts have different thresholds than state courts, and even within federal courts, requirements can differ for various types of lawsuits. Generally, courts will accept the plaintiff's good-faith estimate of the amount at the beginning of the case, unless it's legally certain that the plaintiff could not recover that much.

Here are a few examples illustrating how jurisdictional amount applies:

• Federal Diversity Jurisdiction: Imagine a driver from Oregon sues a driver from Washington State for injuries and property damage resulting from a car accident. The Oregon driver claims $120,000 in medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Because the parties are from different states (a concept known as diversity of citizenship) and the claimed damages ($120,000) exceed the federal court threshold of $75,000, this case could potentially be heard in a federal district court. The $120,000 represents the jurisdictional amount.

• State Court Tiers: Consider a situation where a person sues a local contractor for faulty repair work on their home, seeking $4,000 to fix the issues. Many state court systems are structured with different divisions based on the amount of money involved. For example, a state might have a small claims court designed for disputes under $10,000, offering a simpler, less formal process. In this scenario, the $4,000 jurisdictional amount would likely direct the lawsuit to the small claims court, rather than a general civil court that handles larger, more complex cases.

• Federal Class Action Lawsuits: Suppose a large group of consumers files a class action lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company, alleging that a defective drug caused minor but widespread health issues and financial losses. While each individual consumer's claim might be relatively small, the total estimated damages for all affected consumers combined are $20 million. For a class action lawsuit to be heard in federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act, the total jurisdictional amount across all class members must exceed $5,000,000. Even though no single plaintiff's claim might meet the $75,000 diversity threshold, the aggregate $20 million allows the case to proceed in federal court, making it the relevant jurisdictional amount.