October 14, 2008

We may soon have less to write about on the forum-shopping front. As readers of this site know, the Eastern District of Texas has in recent years become plaintiff's lawyers' favored venue nationwide for patent cases and has been growing in popularity for other cases as well. Now the Fifth Circuit has ruled en banc by a 10-7 margin (PDF) that trial court judge T. John Ward was wrong to deny defendant Volkswagen's efforts to get a car case moved from the Eastern District (which had no particular connection with the parties) back to Dallas, where the crash had actually taken place. Ted discussed the controversy and its background at length this spring, as well as earlier, which are good places to start in understanding the significance of the new decision. More at Patently-O on this decision and on forum-shopping generally.