Legal Question in Discrimination Law in California

Re: litigation

Your question is about jurisdiction -- what power does a federal court have. The federal courts have power to decide cases which involve violations of federal law; they also have the power to decide cases in which the amount sued for is over $50,000 (the amount may now be $75,000), and in which the parties being sued are "diverse." Diversity means that none of the defendants lives in the state where the lawsuit is filed. (Diversity is a tricky concept when it comes to determining the home base of a corporation.) If there is jurisdiction -- either through "federal question" (violation of federal law) or "diversity," the federal courts may also decide related violations of state law -- this is called "concurrent jurisdiction." The court is not required to decide these state law violations, but, in most cases will do so.