Florida insureds generally prefer to have their insurance coverage disputes decided in Florida state courts, where they are more familiar and where the judges and juries tend to be from the same local area as the insureds. Insurers often prefer federal courts for the same reasons, but federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. To obtain federal adjudication, a case must present either a federal question or satisfy diversity jurisdiction. A case must meet two circumstances to satisfy diversity jurisdiction: The amount at issue in the case must surpass $75,000, and there must be complete diversity between the parties, see 28 U.S.C. Section 1332(a). Complete diversity means that the plaintiffs must be citizens of states (or countries) that differ from the states (or countries) in which the defendants are citizens. For example, a citizen from Georgia could sue a citizen of Florida in diversity, but a citizen of Florida could not sue another citizen of Florida in diversity.

Like all rules, parties have tried to bend (or raise) the walls of complete diversity. One way is naming a nondiverse party as a defendant to defeat complete diversity and keep the case out of federal court. To block this maneuver, federal courts developed the doctrine of fraudulent joinder, see Triggs v. John Crump Toyota, 154 F.3d 1284, 1287 (11th Cir. 1998). If an insurer trying to remove a case to federal court meets the requirements of the doctrine, the court may ignore the fraudulently joined party when considering complete diversity. Yet courts are wary that parties wrongfully allege that a party’s joinder is fraudulent. As a result, the federal courts have crafted a high burden for establishing fraudulent joinder.

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