If I were to sue someone should I do it in state or federal court?
What is the difference?
Answers:
ALL of the prior answers are wrong. Federal courts are courts of strictly limited jurisdiction. You can sue in Federal Court ONLY if there is a provision of the Constitution Art III that applies to you (unlikely unless you are an Ambassador of a foreign state or a Governor of a state suing on its behalf) or there is a specific Federal statute giving Federal Courts jurisdiction over you particular claim. There are certain kinds of claims that SHOULD be brought in Federal Court (eg., patent enforcement, most Civil Rights cases; contested bankruptcy claims, etc. ) Without knowing what your claim involves, no one here can answer your question.
It would probably be a good idea to sue in civil court. States generally run the civil end of things unless its a civil rights issue then of course it would move to the federal level.
The first court for redresal is the local court which is the local state court. It most countries the second court of appeal is the higher state court and the Fedreal court is usually the Higest Court of appeal of the Country.
State unless it's a federal matter. Federal matters usually come later unless it's being prosecuted by the FBI or something. Federal matters involve more than one state and this could be employment matters if your employer has companies in more than one state etc. (Then it would be filed in what is called "US District Court") It gets complicated but most likely you would do it in state court. It would be wise to hire an attorney.
This question can not be answered definitively without a lot of additional information. If you really are going to sue someone, you should probably get advice from an attorney on whether to sue in one vs the other.
There are many differences between the two. One such difference is jurisdiction. Based on the type of claim you have, the person you seek to sue and other elements of your claim, you may not be able to sue in federal court and may have to sue in state court. This could be reversed, but it is much less frequent.
There is an additional question of which states you can sue in? Determining jurisdiction is a complicated question in and of itself, and then there is the matter of what court is the most strategically advantagous forum to bring your suit.
The simplistic answers you got so far are all wrong. Your question involves an entire semester class in law school and cannot be answered simply in this site.
you can't sue someone in a federal court
you have to start on the small level and work your way up. try doing it in small claims court, then civil court.
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