Removal

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Removal lets a defendant move a lawsuit from state to federal court, and our litigators handle both sides: timely, well-grounded notices of removal and aggressive remand motions when the other side oversteps.

Where your case is tried matters. Removal gives a defendant a one-time shot to shift a lawsuit out of state court and into federal court, and the deadlines and procedural traps are unforgiving. We file removals that hold up, and we fight to send improperly removed cases back. Because our attorneys came out of software engineering, we are at home with the technical disputes that often make federal court the better forum.

Establishing Federal Jurisdiction

A removal only works if a federal court actually has jurisdiction. We pressure-test every theory before filing: complete diversity of citizenship with the amount in controversy met, a federal question on the face of your complaint, or a specialized removal statute such as those covering federal officers or class actions. Getting the basis right at the outset keeps your case in the forum you want and avoids a costly trip back to state court.

Hitting The Deadlines

The 30-day clock for removal is short and easy to blow. We track the trigger dates, secure consent from all served defendants where the rule requires it, and prepare a notice of removal that lays out the jurisdictional grounds cleanly. When facts surface later that first make a case removable, we know how to use them while staying inside the one-year outer limit on diversity removals.

Defeating Improper Removal

When you are the plaintiff and your case gets yanked into federal court, we move fast to remand. We attack defective jurisdiction, point out procedural missteps like missing defendant consent or a late notice, and expose attempts to manufacture diversity. Where the removal was baseless, we seek your fees and costs under the remand statute so the other side pays for the detour.

Frequently asked questions

Removal is how a defendant moves a case that the plaintiff filed in state court over to federal court. It's available when the case is one that could have been filed in federal court in the first place, based on a federal question or on diversity jurisdiction.

You can remove when the case raises a federal question, when there's complete diversity between all plaintiffs and all defendants and the amount in controversy is over $75,000, or when a specific federal statute authorizes removal. Complete diversity means no plaintiff shares a state of citizenship with any defendant.

The general deadline is 30 days from service of the complaint. If the grounds for removal only become clear later, a new 30-day clock starts when you receive the document that shows the case is removable. There's a backstop, though: a diversity case can't be removed more than one year after it was filed.

The forum defendant rule says you can't remove a case on diversity grounds if any properly joined defendant is a citizen of the state where the suit was filed. The idea is that a local defendant doesn't need a federal forum to avoid home-state bias. The rule only applies to diversity removal, not to federal question removal.

Yes. The plaintiff can file a motion to remand, arguing either that the removal had a procedural defect or that the federal court lacks jurisdiction. Courts read the removal statutes strictly and resolve genuine doubts in favor of sending the case back to state court, so a removal that isn't well grounded is vulnerable.

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