Jurisdiction, Venue, and Forum
Jurisdiction
The rule requires diversity between every plaintiff and every defendant. Citizenship is determined at filing for original jurisdiction and at both filing and removal for removed cases.
CAFA relaxes the requirement for qualifying class actions.
Alternative Names:
Complete Diversity Rule|Strawbridge Rule
Why it Matters?
Nondiverse defendants joined without a viable claim may be disregarded under the fraudulent joinder doctrine, which is the principal route to removal where a local defendant appears in the caption. The standard requires showing no possibility of recovery against that defendant, which is demanding but succeeds where the claim against them is clearly barred. Nominal parties are separately disregarded.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
How is a nondiverse defendant disregarded?
When is citizenship measured?
