Since 1996, for diversity cases, the price of admission to get your lawsuit into federal court has been $75,000-plus — i.e., the amount in controversy had to exceed $75,000.
It’s safe to say that a dollar doesn’t go as far today as it did back then. And, finally, it looks like Congress may do something about it. Last week, Rep. Laurel Lee introduced the Federal Diversity Jurisdiction Modernization Act. If passed, the Act will raise the amount in controversy from $75,000 to $500,000. To give you some context, $75k in 1996 is roughly equivalent to $158k today, so this is more than just an inflation adjustment.
The reason for the increase? Our federal courts are slammed. Since 1990, federal filings have increased by 30% while the number of authorized district court judgeships has grown by only 4%. Legislation creating more judgeships has stalled out because of political bickering, so this looks like an alternative path to addressing the federal caseload.
This is long overdue. But the Act needs a cooler name. How about the “Don’t Make a Federal Case Out of It” Act?
You can read the press release for the Act here.
4 comments:
How about we just get rid of diversity juris. all together? Is there actually any evidence that state courts are biased against non-citizen defendants? And don't they have WAY too many cases to even care or notice where the parties hail from?
This seems great for the federal judges' schedules, but busier state court judges and the administration of justice in the United States might have something to say.
Insurance claims significantly drive up the federal caseload in Florida. State courts are better equipped to apply state law.
Like the name. Very Rumpolian
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