Are You Talkin' To Me?

Civil Procedure is a really interesting class. The professor, who I enjoy and respect completely, asked me a question in class yesterday. Here's the transcript I pulled from memory.

Professor: Mr. Aaroneous, is the Plaintiff out of luck if he can't gain personal jurisdiction in the forum state?

Me: (I'd been looking in my book and notes regarding a previous question he'd asked someone else so I wasn't ready to be on the spot like this) Uh...Yes.

Professor: So you're saying the Plaintiff doesn't get his day in court? It's done, over with?

Me: (This is when the beads of sweat start coming out on my forehead and the temperature in the classroom feels like it's about 123º) If there's no jurisdiction, he's out of luck.

Brad, the guy who sits next to me: (whispering) California and New York.

Me: The Plaintiff could sue the defendants in their resident states of California and New York.

Professor: Exactly right, Mr. Aaroneous! Good observation!

At this point, the temperature in the classroom came back down to a reasonable 95º or so. The professor's attention was turned to someone else for other questions and I thanked Brad for helping me. It's not that I wouldn't be able to come up with that answer on my own, but jeez, the hot seat melted all memory of what kind of actions the Plaintiff could have done in his circumstances.

That night I told my wife what happened and she laughed at me. A lot. I narrowly dodged the "fool on the back row" bullet.