28 U.S.C. § 1631
Section 1631 · Transfer to cure want of jurisdiction
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 2,023 court decisions — leading case Christianson v. Colt Industries Operating Corp. (1988)
Most recently applied in Öztürk v. Hyde (May 2025)
Applied most in the District Circuit Circuit (142 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 28 U.S.C. § 1491 · 28 U.S.C. § 1346 · 28 U.S.C. § 1295
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whenever a civil action is filed in a court as defined in section 610 of this title or an appeal, including a petition for review of administrative action, is noticed for or filed with such a court and that court finds that there is a want of jurisdiction, the court shall, if it is in the interest of justice, transfer such action or appeal to any other such court in which the action or appeal could have been brought at the time it was filed or noticed, and the action or appeal shall proceed as if it had been filed in or noticed for the court to which it is transferred on the date upon which it was actually filed in or noticed for the court from which it is transferred.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Effective Date
Section effective Oct. 1, 1982, see section 402 of Pub. L. 97–164, set out as an Effective Date of 1982 Amendment note under section 171 of this title.