The Chaos of Civil Procedure

Winning a lawsuit has nothing to do with being right and everything to do with geography.

This is the absolute chaos of Civil Procedure. Before you even argue your side, you have to prove

the court is allowed to hear you. It’s called Personal Jurisdiction. If the person you're

suing doesn't have minimum contacts with the state—basically if they haven't done business there—you

are out of luck. It doesn’t matter if they owe you millions. If you file in the

wrong place or mess up the Erie doctrine, your case gets tossed immediately. In law,

the rules of the game matter more than the truth.