Personal Injury Law

Does Nevada Have Jurisdiction? Part III

By Steve Klearman

This is the last part of my three-part series on the issue of whether Nevada has jurisdiction over a doctor who practices medicine over the Internet from a different state.

1. Many States Have Recognized The Propriety Of Exercising Jurisdiction Over Nonresident Doctors

Courts have found jurisdiction over nonresident doctors where they purposefully directed their actions at plaintiffs' states. For example, where doctors or hospitals have sought business from a state, courts have held jurisdiction over them to be proper in that state. See, e.g., Cubbage v. Merchant, 744 F.2d 665 (9th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1005, 105 S.Ct. 1359, 84 L.Ed.2d 380 (1985); Pijanowski v. Cleveland Clinic Found., 635 F.Supp. 1435 (E.D.Mich.1986); Lemke v. St. Margaret Hosp., 552 F.Supp. 833 (N.D.Ill.1982). Whether a party solicited the business interface in the first place is irrelevant, so long as defendant then directed its activities to the forum resident. Lanier v. American Bd. of Endodontics, 843 F.2d 901, 910 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 926, 109 S.Ct. 310, 102 L.Ed.2d 329 (1988).

Full post as published by Reno Personal Injury Lawyer on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).