Subject-matter jurisdiction
Subject-matter jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear and determine cases of the general class to which the proceedings in question belong. For example, a bankruptcy court has the authority to hear only bankruptcy cases. Similarly, a small claims court has a monetary limit when it comes to awarding money to a plaintiff.[1]
Federal courts
There are seven subject-matter courts in the United States, six Article I and one Article III. These courts differ from federal courts with territorial jurisdiction, like the United States District Court that hears a wide range of cases that come from defined regional areas, in that they are given a defined type of case on which they can rule. It is possible for territorial jurisdiction to be waived and a case to be heard outside of the region it originated in, however subject-matter jurisdiction cannot be waived without nullifying the case.[2] Some examples of federal courts with subject-matter jurisdiction are the Tax Court, Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, Court of Military Commission Review, Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Court of Federal Claims, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Court of International Trade.
Two ways for federal courts to gain subject matter jurisdiction are federal question jurisdiction and diversity jurisdiction. A lawsuit must arise under federal, and not state, law in order for a federal court to have federal question jurisdiction.[3] A federal court has diversity jurisdiction if the amount in controversy is over $75,000 and no plaintiff is a citizen of the same state of any defendant.[4]
For more information on federal subject-matter jurisdiction courts, see: Federal subject-matter jurisdiction courts.
State courts
Many state court systems are divided into divisions such as criminal, civil law, family, and probate. A court within any one of those divisions would lack subject-matter jurisdiction to hear a case regarding matters assigned to another division. All state court systems have a general jurisdiction trial court; that is, it is competent to hear any case over which no other tribunal has exclusive jurisdiction.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ The Free Dictionary, "Subject matter jurisdiction definition," accessed December 16, 2015
- ↑ Legal Information Institute, "Subject matter jurisdiction definition," accessed December 16, 2015
- ↑ Legal Information Institute, "Federal Question Jurisdiction," accessed December 16, 2015
- ↑ Legal Information Institute, "Diversity Jurisdiction," accessed December 16, 2015
