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Simple English definitions for legal terms

Personal Jurisdiction

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A quick definition of Personal Jurisdiction:

Personal jurisdiction is the power that a court has to make a decision about someone who is being sued. The court can only have power over that person if they have some connection to the place where the court is located. If the person being sued doesn't think the court has power over them, they can object to the lawsuit. But if they show up in court without objecting, they are giving up their right to challenge the court's power. To get personal jurisdiction, the person suing usually has to serve the person being sued in the same state as the court and the person being sued has to show up in court.

A more thorough explanation:

Definition: Personal jurisdiction refers to a court's power to make a decision about a party being sued in a case. The U.S. Constitution requires that the party being sued has certain minimum contacts with the state where the court is located before the court can exercise power over them. If the defendant argues that the court does not have personal jurisdiction over them, they can object to the lawsuit.

Example: If someone from California sues someone from New York in a court in Texas, the court must determine if it has personal jurisdiction over the defendant from New York. If the defendant has never been to Texas and has no business or other connections there, they may argue that the court does not have personal jurisdiction over them.

Waiving Personal Jurisdiction: Personal jurisdiction can be waived by the party being sued. If the defendant appears in court without objecting to the court's lack of personal jurisdiction over them, the court will assume that the defendant is waiving any challenge to personal jurisdiction.

Example: If the defendant from New York in the previous example decides to appear in court in Texas without objecting to the court's personal jurisdiction over them, they are waiving any challenge to personal jurisdiction.

Obtaining Personal Jurisdiction: To have personal jurisdiction over a defendant, the plaintiff usually needs to serve the defendant in the state where the court is located, and the defendant needs to voluntarily appear in court.

Example: If the plaintiff from California in the previous example serves the defendant from New York with the lawsuit in Texas and the defendant decides to appear in court in Texas, the court may have personal jurisdiction over the defendant.

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KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
18:47
@TruthTheX: praying for your gulc uprising
19:15
Ty me too 🙏
19:15
@Silver: if you want to practice in IL then there’s likely no better school than the in state schools
@SpectacularDefiantMouse: yeah, like condemnedpuffygnome, I'm not really preparing for law school by taking some courses or anything like that. The only way I'm going to be preparing is by getting myself into a rhythm schedule-wise, well enough in advance of the first day of classes, that I think will be necessary for me to do well 1L.
I'm very much not in rhythm now. lol. But I've 3-ish months.
19:55
@Silver: Cost of attendance is what matters. $37K in-state tuition = $47K sticker price with a $10K scholarship elsewhere, $70K sticker with a $40K scholarship is better than either, $40K sticker with a $0 scholarship worse than both.
19:55
(Assuming placement etc. is comparable)
Congrats on Harvard, jb2028. Any reason you applied to A&M but not Texas at Austin? Seems odd.
19:58
@BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool: Family connection, they gave me a CAS waiver so it was free
Question for the chat about judicial internships (not externships). My understanding is that judicial internships (as opposed to externships) during the summer are unpaid. How, then, do people who get them pay living expenses during the summer? Do they just make loans stretch for 12 months when they're only meant for 9? I heard that some people supplement the internship with, e.g., a research assistant position with a law professor. But would such a person both do the internship and the RA position at the same time? And if so, is that too much work or feasible?
I don't know what the workload is really like for judicial internships and RA positions.
Also curious what other things people might do to supplement an unpaid judicial internship over the summer with something paid.
20:20
@BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool: Many schools will provide some type of stipend for unpaid summer roles with a public interest employer (defined broadly, often includes any gov or judicial job)
Right, I thought so. At BU, though, it appears that what's called BU's public interest project grant is not available to supplement judicial internships. And I think its public service summer funding is also limited. Oh well.
21:13
@BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool: FWIW they allude to some type of funding ("BU Law has implemented separate funding sources for judicial interns") in this packet https://www.bu.edu/law/files/2023/11/Public-Service-Summer-Funding-Applicant-Packet-2024.pdf
21:13
Although they don't give details, and as you note they don't guarantee funding to everyone (which is in line with other $ they offer, e.g. the LRAP)
21:14
Anyone know how hard it is to do pro bono work as a 1L for judges or fed gov in general in the D.C. market
21:14
Idk much about pro bono opportunities period but thinking I wanna try to get some work experience as soon as humanly possible
21:14
When I begin law school I mean
21:15
Lines up with BU's limited endowment: $81K per student a few years ago, i.e., enough to support a payout of about $3,250 per student per year at a 4% payout rate https://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2022/05/per-student-value-of-law-school-endowments-2021.html
21:17
Seems like they're trying to compete with other schools on program headlines (we fund X, Y, and Z and we have an LRAP) but the endowment can't really support that, so they have all these programs but don't guarantee funding. Would not rely on that if you have alternatives.
Thanks for those links. I'll give the public service summer funding information packet, in particular, a careful read. But yeah, your takeaway seems right.
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:33
i could really use some fried chicken right now
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:34
kfc or popeyes
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:34
or korean with gochujang
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:35
i might order some gochujang sauce on amazon and cook some air fried chicken breast filets, they’re really good
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:35
just letting you guys know :)
0:14
Where I can find the definition of the false-endowment?
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