Law Commons^™

Comedy Or Tragedy: The Tale Of Diversity Jurisdiction Removal And The One-Year Bar, Michael W. Lewis

Michael W. Lewis

The current laws governing diversity removal are badly broken. They create counterproductive incentives that have increased the workload of federal courts while rewarding deceptive practices on the part of plaintiffs. Defendants have every incentive to remove even low value cases to federal court, on the chance that the vague and uncertain standards governing amount in controversy issues will allow them to succeed. At the same time, the current rules encourage plaintiffs to conceal the true value of their cases for one-year, to prevent removal to federal court, and then to reveal the true value, while using the one-year bar to …