Change of venue

A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. A change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about the case and/or the parties to another judicial district in order to obtain jurors who can be more objective in their duties.

A change a venue is typically sought when a defendant believes that the plaintiff's selected venue is either improper or less appropriate than another venue. A request for a change of venue because venue is improper means that the removing defendant believes that the case may not be in that venue because it is improper under procedural rules. A request for a change of venue because the defendant believes there is a more appropriate venue &mdash; called forum non convenience &mdash; even if the current venue is proper under the procedural rules. In these cases, the trial judge is given great deference in most jurisdictions by appellate courts in making the decision as to whether there is a more appropriate venue.