We’re fixated on the subject: When a plaintiff files a complaint in state court that names both residents and non-residents of the forum state as defendants, can the non-resident defendant remove before the plaintiff serves the in-state defendant?
(We know that’s cryptic shorthand, but regular readers of this blog have seen more expansive descriptions of…

We really shouldn’t complain about the burden after we voluntarily assume a duty.
After all, we created the Drug Preemption Scorecard, the Device Preemption Scorecard, the No Injury Scorecard, and the Cross-Jurisdictional Class Action Tolling Scorecard, and we know that, having created those resources, we’re duty-bound to keep ’em current. (But we’re not your lawyers!…

Some blogs are all over Hurricane Gustav.
Some are investigating Sarah Palin.
Some analyze critical issues of the day.
And you’ve come here, where it’s wall-to-wall coverage of whether defendants can remove an action in which a non-resident defendant has been named in a complaint, but not yet served with process.
(We’re not sure whether…

We just received this e-mail from a regular visitor to the blog. (We don’t know whether he wants to be identified, so we’re not publishing his name, but the words below are not ours.)
In light of the continued interest in pre-service removal cases, note that both Valerio v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., No. 08-60522-CIV, 2008…

As readers of this blog know, we’ve been strangely fascinated by the spat over whether in-state defendants (whose presence in a lawsuit would ordinarily prevent removal) can remove actions to federal court before those defendants are served with the complaint.
For examples of our fascination, see here, here, here, and here.…

When we get ourselves worked up in a lather, we just won’t stop.
We saw the case of Thomson v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., No. 06-6280 (JBS), 2007 WL 1521138 (D.N.J. May 22, 2007), last year, and couldn’t believe that the world had overlooked the issue: Plaintiff files a complaint naming multiple defendants in, say,…

We can’t get enough of the Thomson v. Novartis controversy.
Are we weird, or what?
We posted about Thomson itself here. And we followed up here and here.
Although we may be weird, we’re not alone. The Civil Procedure Prof Blog picked it up here.
Once more, with feeling, my friends:
Now…