When Do Federal Courts Hear Florida Personal Injury Cases?

Most of the time, if you are seriously injured in a Miami car accident, you can sue the negligent driver in Florida state court. But there are certain personal injury cases that may be heard in federal court instead. For example, if you are involved in a truck accident with a tractor-trailer operated by an out-of-state company, you could elect to file your personal injury claim in federal court. Indeed, even if you decide to file in state court, the out-of-state defendant could still elect to transfer the case to federal court.

Federal Judge Returns Truck Accident Lawsuit to Florida Court

The process of transferring an existing state personal injury case to federal court is known as removal. To be clear, whether your case is heard in state or federal court has no impact on your substantive rights. Either court must apply Florida law to determining your personal injury claim. The main difference is that federal courts use procedures that can differ from those used in state courts. Out-of-state defendants–especially large companies like commercial truck operators–often feel more comfortable proceeding under these federal procedures.

That said, certain conditions must be met for removal. If these conditions are not met, the plaintiff can ask the federal court to return the case to state court. This is known as remand.

To illustrate how removal and remand work in practice, here is a recent decision from an ongoing Florida truck accident lawsuit. In this case, Harkins v. Knipp, the plaintiff is a Florida resident. While traveling on I-295 near Jacksonville in October 2024, a tractor-trailer hit the plaintiff’s vehicle. She sustained serious injuries in the crash and later filed a personal injury lawsuit in state court against the driver of the tractor-trailer and the company that owned the truck.

The defendants removed the case to federal court. A federal judge, however, remanded the case back to Florida state court. The judge found the defendants failed to meet both of the necessary conditions for removal.

The first condition was “complete diversity.” Basically, if you are a Florida resident filing a lawsuit, complete diversity exists only if none of the people you sue are also Florida residents. Here, the truck owner was a corporation headquartered in Rhode Island. But the residence of the truck driver was not clear. He possessed a Maryland driver’s license, but the judge said that there was evidence suggesting the driver actually lived in Florida. As such, complete diversity had not been established.

The second condition for removal is that the “amount in controversy”–i.e., the total damages sought by the plaintiff–must be more than $75,000. The plaintiff’s lawsuit claimed “damages that exceed $50,000” but did not present a more specific amount. Again, the judge said there was insufficient evidence presented by the defendants to show the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000. The case therefore had to be returned to state court.

Contact a Miami Truck Accident Lawyer Today

Commercial truck accidents often raise a number of factual and legal issues that require an experienced attorney to resolve. If you need to speak with a qualified Miami truck accident lawyer, contact Pita Weber Del Prado in Miami today at 305-670-2889 to schedule a free consultation.

Source:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14509126904363933526