{"id":340,"date":"2010-04-21T22:08:38","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T02:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=340"},"modified":"2010-04-21T22:08:38","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T02:08:38","slug":"where-can-i-sue-location-location-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=340","title":{"rendered":"Where can I sue? Location, location, location."},"content":{"rendered":"

OK push has come to shove.<\/strong> Your lawyer says, “You gotta<\/strong> sue.\u00a0 No options left”.\u00a0 So where do you go to get the S.O.B.s who have beaten you out of your fee, stolen your image and deprived your kids of their tuition?<\/p>\n

Lawyers often throw around two important legal words not realizing that the terms are not within the vocabulary of civilians.\u00a0 Specifically, “jurisdiction” and “venue”.\u00a0 Contrary to the views of some un-trained bloggers, the terms are not<\/strong> interchangeable.
\nSimply put, jurisdiction means power<\/em>.\u00a0 A court with jurisdiction has the power and authority to decide a case.\u00a0 Venue means “place” – as in which geographic county, state or district the court with jurisdiction is physically located, like St. Paul, MN.<\/p>\n

Law students take extensive procedural courses and review many cases which deal with the issue of which courts have jurisdiction in different matters. Occasionally<\/em> more than one court can hear a case, either or even both having jurisdiction.\u00a0 Jurisdiction may be determined by the type<\/em> of case.\u00a0 For example\u00a0a copyright case MUST be brought in a Federal Court as only the federal courts have jurisdiction.\u00a0 Where the parties live, do business, transact business and\/or where the events sued upon occurred (where infringement took place) may also determine jurisdiction and\/or venue.\u00a0 In contract matters, both sides should and typically do, agree and insert a paragraph designating the proper jurisdiction and venue in the event of a dispute.\u00a0 A more thorough discussion would take a few hundred pages and has led many a law student to the bottle.<\/p>\n

Courts, as well as federal and state laws, discourage potential litigants from “forum shopping”. (No we don’t mean the stores at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas)\u00a0 Rather, there are limitations imposed as to where<\/em><\/strong> one can bring suit.\u00a0 Sometimes you may have the option of bringing a case in federal court in say, your home town of Butte, Montana or the hometown of the company you are suing and\/or where the infringement took place like New York City or Los Angeles.\u00a0 While it is counter-intuitive, as a photographer or creative person you may be better, much better off, suing in the defendant’s<\/em> backyard.<\/p>\n

Here are some typical scenarios where if<\/em><\/strong> a choice is “available” to you, your attorney may advise suing in the defendant’s home town rather than your own.\u00a0 This may be true even though the cost of suing locally is usually far less and more convenient:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 You can sue in State Y because the defendant does business there and the laws in State Y are better than the laws in State X (where you live or work) for you and\/or your type of case.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Judges\/juries tend to give more money in State Y than in State X.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Certain defenses which could be used in State X by the defendant cannot be used in State Y.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 State X rarely, very rarely handles cases like (yours) so you go to a state which handles them all of the time, judges are up to speed, juries understand the facts, identify with creative types and the laws applicable in State Y are clear and\u00a0 “plaintiff friendly”.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 There are other reasons, circumstances etc. and you can’t always just go to another state to pick your court.\u00a0 But in many cases involving advertising, models, photography, artwork and the rights of creatives,\u00a0the nature of the beast is that “State Y” is most often New York or California.\u00a0 A jury in say LA or NY County, likely has members who work in the arts, show business, advertising, broadcasting, publishing or have spouses or relatives who do.\u00a0 The\u00a0importance of jury identification with a plaintiff and an understanding of the relevant industry can\u00a0not be underestimated.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Big city judges and juries tend to award more money to successful litigants than small town judges\/juries.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 It is often cheaper and easier to find and hire lawyers and\/or experts knowledgeable\u00a0in the relevant areas in big cities than in rural settings.<\/p>\n

Now let’s pause for a moment for context.\u00a0 Say you had a case that dealt with a dispute arising out the purchase and sale of faulty slot machines and a bogus service contract that was tied to those machines.\u00a0 What if your case dealt with an allegedly faulty grain elevator which caused you to lose fifty percent of your harvested wheat crop?\u00a0 How about a complex personal injury, product liability case arising out of an incident and explosion on an off shore oil rig?\u00a0 In those cases, you’d likely want to see those trials take place in Las Vegas, Omaha and New Orleans respectively.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, many cases have been lost or “devalued” when the wrong jurisdiction or venue choice was made.\u00a0 Most often your choice is limited.\u00a0 Only a competent attorney can advise you as to A. whether you even have a choice as to jurisdiction and\/or venue and B. what that choice should be.\u00a0 Do not try this at home.\u00a0 Do not rely on amateurs.\u00a0 Do not rely on anyone other than a competent attorney who can make your interest paramount in selecting your courthouse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK push has come to shove. Your lawyer says, “You gotta sue.\u00a0 No options left”.\u00a0 So where do you go to get the S.O.B.s who have beaten you out of your fee, stolen your image and deprived your kids of their tuition? Lawyers often throw around two important legal words not realizing that the terms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright-info"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}