As technology in general and the internet in general progress, one of the areas of the law that is becoming more and more important, especially if you are representing yourself, is jurisdiction. That will be the topic of this and the next several posts.

Imagine this scenario. You live in upstate New York. You make your living by going to estate sales and auctions, where you buy antiques which you later sell on Ebay. The doorbell rings.  You open the door to a person that hands you some papers. When you look at what you’ve received, you see that these are court papers and you in fact are the defendant in a lawsuit brought in Utah. You notice that you have twenty days to answer.  Your first response is “WTF – I’ve never been to Utah. I don’t know anybody there. What’s going on and what do I do?”

Technology and the way we do business has changed dramatically in just the last twenty years or so. When business used to be done locally, when you bought things from local stores, when transactions were done in person, the issue of where disputes would be settled was a simple one. Now everything is different. Ebay, Craigslist, the internet in general, make the whole country, perhaps the whole world a marketplace. When you provide services, or sell things on the internet, who have no way of knowing where a person that you might deal with is located. You have no way of knowing or controlling where your services or product will finally be delivered or used. The ballgame has changed!!

In this and the next few posts, we’ll talk about the issue of jurisdiction, and more specifically how and when the courts of one state can exercise jurisdiction over people in another state. And most important, how to deal with things if you find yourself in the position of our hypothetical antique seller.

Let’s talk a little about jurisdiction. In particular, we are going to be talking about personal jurisdiction (sometimes called in personam jurisdiction), as opposed to what the law refers to as subject matter jurisdiction. The latter is a separate topic, for another day. What we are talking about is how and when a court can exercise jurisdiction – that is exercise authority over you.

The topic of jurisdiction can be wildly complicated, but understanding a couple of principles will make it little easier to wade through.

First, while most people believe that a court can exercise control over anyone, that is simply not true. A court can do nothing regarding anyone until it has acquired jurisdiction.  Interestingly, it is a single document, when properly served that confers personal jurisdiction upon a court, and that is the summons. Until a plaintiff can demonstrate to a court that a defendant has been served with a summons, in a way authorized by law, that court has no jurisdiction over – that is it can take no action over that defendant. 

However, even if a person has received the summons, as with our antique seller, the question of whether or not a court can exercise jurisdiction can still be very complicated.

Before we talk about the different factors that determine whether or not a court in a different state may have jurisdiction over you, in that this blog and our website is all about representing yourself, there is one absolutely critical thing that you need to know, and there is no way to overstate the importance of this.

If you are sued in another state, and you even think there is the slightest possibility that that state may not have jurisdiction over you, DO NOT ANSWER THE COMPLAINT.

That’s right. Take a deep breath, study and review things, but the LAST thing you want to be doing is firing off an answer in which you deny that you did anything wrong, etc.

Why?

Because in every state, in every court, you can be deemed to have waived any jurisdictional issue by filing a general answer, that is an answer that addresses anything other than jurisdiction. Admittedly, many states have rules that provide that as long as you object to jurisdiction, you have not waived it, but why take the chance? Why risk finding yourself defending a lawsuit in a court a thousand miles away, when you could have forced your opponent to come to you?

There are some options to dealing with the issue of jurisdiction, and we’ll deal with those in more detail.

In subsequent posts, I’ll talk about the concept of “long arm” jurisdiction, that Is the ability of courts to exercise jurisdiction of non-residents, and how to deal with jurisdictional issues.

One of the reasons people may elect to represent themselves is the high cost of lawyers. Being advised in the middle of the “free initial consultation”  that anything more will cost you $2500, $5000 or even $10,000 retainer against an hourly fee of two or three hundred dollars,  can be sobering at best. Some of us can afford this kind of expense, others can’t. The prospect of finding yourself having to go to court with no way to afford an attorney is a fear that unfortunately has been played upon by a sometimes less than scrupulous industry – prepaid legal services.

In this post Be Your Own Lawyer will examine this industry so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not one of the many plans available is right for you.

First, what is a prepaid legal plan? In its simplest terms it is an arrangement where in exchange for a monthly fee, which you pay whether or need legal help or not, if and when you do need legal help, the plan provides it.

Understand that any prepaid legal plan is nothing more than an insurance policy. It is not different that health insurance, auto mobile insurance, or even an extended warranty on your car or appliance. The theory is simple. Most people will not need legal representation, therefore by collecting payments from a large number of people, those who require it are provided help. Most people never use the service, but have the security and peace of mind, knowing that if they need it, the help is there.

The theory is good. However, it must also be considered in the context of a second principle underlying any kind of insurance. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting premiums (in this case plan payments) and preferably not in the business of paying claims. Common sense confirms this. If an insurance company collects a certain amount of monthly payments, say $X, then every dollar they pay out in claims or benefits reduces their profits.

This is as much true of the prepaid legal services industry as it is with any other kind of insurance. The result is that many of these plans are effectively worthless due to limitations and exclusions. For example, one popular program charges $9.95 per month for individuals and $19.95 for families. That may sound like a good deal until you take a look at what it does not include. Divorces, separation, bankruptcy, criminal defense, any income producing property, or any business related matter. Limitations for services that are included, likewise make the plan virtually worthless. For example IRS audit benefits not in a trial environment are limited to three and a half hours of attorney time.

If you examine the list of exclusions and limitations it becomes quickly apparent that for most of the things that the average person is likely to need legal help with, the plan either provides no benefits, or benefits that are so limited that they are basically worthless.

Suddenly shelling out $9.95 or $19.95 per month is not such a great prospect!

This is not to say that all prepaid legal plans are bad, or of no value. It would be wise though to read the plans carefully and be sure they will be of value to you when you need them.