PhotoHound wrote:At the risk of sounding stupid ...
You don't. As JRB says, federal jurisdiction can be tricky for experienced lawyers.
YTB can operate outside of Illinois, but unless you actually live in Illinois ... you're 'sh*t Outta Luck if you're a Plaintiff?'
Not exactly.
As
the opinion shows, the Court dismissed the non-Illinois-resident plaintiffs on the ground that they had no standing to sue under an Illinois consumer protection statute, which they had tried to do. When an Illinois plaintiff not only maintained his own suit, but attempted to bring a federal class action on behalf of the others, the Court dismissed on the grounds of lack of diversity.
These are actually not "technicalities", as another poster called them. Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. If a litigant seeks to invoke it, then as a matter of constitutional law you must be properly situated. BTW, nothing prevents the same plaintiffs from suing YTB in Illinois state court.
What about promotional material YTB send out via mail, email etc. Wouldn't that be classed as Mail Fraud and wouldn't that be a Federal Offence?
Private citizens cannot bring criminal prosecutions. In the case of mail fraud, that would take a United States Attorney. Only the most blatant (and generally otherwise harmful) consumer frauds get prosecuted. See the "Greg Caton" thread, below.
Mike! wrote:Seems like a prime topic for around here, yet I find no evidence of any such discussion ever happening. I have done the searches... Have I somehow missed it?
As I just posted in another thread, no regular here is involved in MLMs, either as a distributor or as an owner. We do this on our own time, write about what interests us, and given time are glad to answer questions. You are interested in YTB, thanks for starting a thread, please continue to contribute.
But, they are still facing the Illinois A/G office and the founders have a tidy handfull of lawsuits against them too. Seems like a prime topic for around here, yet I find no evidence of any such discussion ever happening. I have done the searches... Have I somehow missed it? 
