L-R Neil Hlawatsch and Shannon McClure, Reed Smith.
Removal is the process by which a defendant seeks to have a case transferred from the state court (in which the complaint was originally filed) to federal court. The policy underlying a defendant’s right to removal is to prevent any potential bias by the state court in favor of a local plaintiff. This article provides an overview of the procedure regarding removal as well as some of the grounds for removing a civil case from state to federal court.
In deciding whether to remove a case, a defendant should consider the advantages of litigating in federal rather than state court. One such advantage is that in federal court, a case is assigned to a single district judge or magistrate judge who retains the case through the end of trial. This sort of direct attention and case management may not exist in state court.
