What is required for a court to have jurisdiction over a case?

Jurisdiction is fundamentally the authority of a court to hear and decide a case. For a court to hold jurisdiction over a case, it must possess the legal power to adjudicate the specific type of dispute brought before it. This implies that the court's jurisdiction must be established based on the nature of the case, which can depend on factors such as the subject matter and the geographical location of the parties involved.

The requirement that the court must have the authority to hear the type of case presented encompasses both subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction. Subject matter jurisdiction refers to the court's ability to hear a type of case, such as civil, criminal, family, or probate matters. Personal jurisdiction relates to the court’s power over the parties involved in the litigation.

In contrast, other responses do not universally apply to all cases. Initiating a case in the federal court system does not inherently grant that court jurisdiction, nor does it apply to the vast majority of state cases. The residency requirement specified in one of the responses is not a blanket rule for jurisdiction; courts can still have jurisdiction based on other criteria such as where the events occurred or where the parties are doing business. Additionally, a defendant's agreement to be tried in a particular court does not generally confer jurisdiction