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A choice-of-law clause identifies which state's law governs the contract, and courts generally respect it where the chosen state has a substantial relationship to the parties or the transaction and no fundamental policy of a more interested state is offended. What it settles is the interpretive law of the bargain: formation, construction, performance and remedies for breach.
Domicile is a person's true, fixed and permanent home, and changing it requires both abandoning the previous domicile and establishing a new one with the intention of remaining. Because intention is not observable, auditors examine objective evidence: the relative size and use of homes, where time is actually spent, where business is centered, where the family lives, and where items of personal significance are kept.
Personal jurisdiction over a defendant outside the state requires two things: a state statute authorizing it, and consistency with constitutional due process. Some states enumerate specific acts — transacting business, committing a tort, owning property, contracting to insure a risk — while others simply extend jurisdiction to the constitutional limit, collapsing the two questions into one.
A notary public in the United States is a state-commissioned officer whose function is to verify identity, witness signatures and administer oaths. The office carries no legal training requirement in most states, confers no authority to advise on the law, and permits no representation of anyone before a federal agency. In many civil law countries a notario publico is a highly qualified lawyer with drafting and advisory authority.
The federal minimum standard for a card that other federal agencies will accept has four documentary components: identity and date of birth, a social security number or a formal statement that none was issued, two documents showing address of principal residence, and evidence of lawful status. States verify the social security number and, for non-citizens, the status evidence against federal systems rather than accepting the paper at face value.
States differ on whether a non-resident may serve as personal representative. Most permit it, some require the appointment of a resident agent for service of process, some require a bond that a resident would not have to post, and a small number restrict non-resident appointments to relatives of the decedent or require a resident co-representative.
State non-cooperation statutes restrict how a state's own agencies, employees and resources may be used to assist federal immigration enforcement: declining to hold someone past their release time without judicial authorization, limiting the sharing of certain information, restricting access to non-public areas, and confining questioning about status. They bind state and local bodies only.
A business qualifying to do business in another state must generally appoint a registered agent to receive service of process there. That appointment reliably means papers can be served, which removes one obstacle a plaintiff would otherwise face. Whether registration also amounts to consent to general jurisdiction — the power to hear any claim, however unconnected — is a question of the registering state's own law, and states differ sharply.
Diversity jurisdiction requires the amount in controversy to exceed a statutory threshold, exclusive of interest and costs. Compensatory and punitive damages both count where punitive damages are recoverable on the claim. Attorney fees count where a contract or statute provides for them. The value of injunctive or declaratory relief counts, measured by its value to the party asserting it or by the cost of compliance depending on the approach used.
A domicile of choice is acquired when a person is physically present in a state and simultaneously intends to remain there indefinitely. Neither element alone is sufficient: presence without intention leaves the old domicile intact, and intention without arrival does nothing. The change can occur on the first day, and no minimum period is required, which surprises people who assume domicile is earned by duration.
Beyond the statutory deadline, a defendant can lose the right to remove by conduct manifesting an intent to litigate in state court. Filing a permissive counterclaim, seeking substantive relief, or proceeding to a hearing on the merits are the clearest examples; taking purely defensive or procedural steps generally is not. A contractual forum selection clause naming a state court can also waive removal where its wording is sufficiently clear and mandatory.
Temporary emergency jurisdiction allows a court in the state where a child is physically present to enter protective orders where the child has been abandoned or where protection is necessary because the child, a sibling or a parent is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse. It is deliberately narrow and deliberately temporary.
