More on jurisdiction

The Illinois Appellate Court recently determined that a website with an interactive calendar function was not sufficiently interactive as to establish the jurisdiction of an Illinois court over a Missouri company. In Howard v. Missouri Bone and Joint Center, the court refused to adopt the Zippo test for internet jurisdiction. As noted in previous posts, the Zippo test is a sliding scale that increases a court's ability to claim jurisdiction based on how interactive a web site is. In this case, the court determined that basically all websites are advertising. Because simple advertising has not been determined to convey jurisdiction on Illinois courts, a simple internet site, even one that is interactive, is not enough to convey jurisdiction. In Illinois, at least, there has to be a significantly greater amount of contact for a court to have jurisdiction.

This case illustrates the difficulty, and lack of clarity, in this area. As I've noted recently in my speeches, web hosts always want to know "where can I be sued?" The answer is, as it often must be with the law, "it depends."