The new Federal Courts removal, venue and jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act (H. R. 394, PL. 112-63) took effect this January, 2012. The Act affects jurisdiction, venue, and removal possibilities in nearly every new federal diversity jurisdiction case. The shortest possible summary of seven major changes important to litigators is contained in this article.

Each new defendant now has their own 30 days to remove to federal court.

No matter when a defendant is added to the suit, that defendant now has a 30 day period to seek removal to federal court. Thus, if you add a defendant, even years into the litigation, you run the risk of removal to federal court, even if the original defendant had failed to remove within 30 days.

When a new defendant demands removal, each earlier-served defendant gets a new option to join in the new defendant’s removal request.

Federal removal jurisdiction requires all defendants to join in the removal petition (or consent to removal) within thirty days of service of a removal petition on them. (This codified "rule of unanimity" may be a change from the judicially created removal rule previously used in your circuit.)

It’s possible to ask for removal even after the one year removal period ends; a common plaintiff’s tactic now can be dangerous for the plaintiff.

District courts are now authorized to allow removal — even after the statutory one year limit on removal petitions – if the court finds  . .