Civil Procedure
Scope
Civil Procedure questions test the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: personal and subject-matter jurisdiction, venue and removal, pleading sufficiency, discovery limits, dispositive motions, and the binding effect of judgments. Michigan's own rules track the federal rules closely, so learning the federal rule and noting the state analogue is the efficient path.
Jurisdiction and removal
- Diversity requires complete diversity plus more than $75,000 in controversy. A partnership takes the citizenship of every partner; an LLC takes the citizenship of every member.
- Removal: 30 days from formal service of the first removable paper, all served defendants must join, and a forum-state defendant defeats diversity removal. No diversity removal more than one year after commencement.
- Lack of subject-matter jurisdiction can be raised by any party or the court at any time; personal jurisdiction, venue, and service are waived if omitted from the first Rule 12 response.
Dispositive motions
Rule 12(b)(6) tests the pleadings on plausibility; Rule 56 requires evidence viewed in the nonmovant's favor with no genuine dispute of material fact. Rule 12(c) judgment on the pleadings is decided on the pleadings alone.
Worked example
A Michigan plaintiff sues a Michigan corporation and an Ohio corporation in a Michigan circuit court for $300,000. The Ohio defendant files a notice of removal 20 days after service. Removal fails twice over: the Michigan defendant destroys complete diversity, and independently the forum-defendant rule bars the Ohio defendant from removing a diversity case from its own home state. The federal court must remand.
Traps
Treating supplemental jurisdiction as needing its own amount in controversy; forgetting that a Rule 12(b)(1) motion is never waived; assuming a notice of removal is timely merely because it precedes the answer; and missing that claim preclusion needs a final judgment on the merits by a court with jurisdiction.