What Is A Change of Venue (Explained: All You Need To Know)
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Table of Contents
What Is Change of Venue
In law, change of venue refers to the moving of a trial or handling of a lawsuit to a new location.
In other words, to change the venue is to change the location where the parties are to litigate a legal matter.
There are many reasons why a change of venue may be considered, such as the inability of finding an impartial jury or when the venue is not legally proper.
The term “venue” refers to the actual “location” where a trial will be held and the matter litigated.
So a change of venue essentially means a change of location.
In the United States, there are many high-profile cases where a change of venue was authorized to allow the proper administration of justice.
Keep reading as I will further break down the meaning of the change of venue and give you some examples.
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Reasons For Change of Venue
There are many reasons why a change of venue may be considered and authorized by the court.
The first reason is to ensure that the parties to a lawsuit are able to have an impartial jury to deal with the matter.
In some cases, it becomes very difficult to find an impartial jury as the matter may have been highly publicized or the community may have a certain bias against the defendant.
Another reason why a change of venue may be obtained is when the lawsuit is filed at the wrong courthouse.
In this case, the venue is legally improper.
When the venue is improper, the court will dismiss the case and direct the parties to file the lawsuit before the court has proper venue.
You can also have a change of venue when the court in another location is better suited to deal with the matter.
In this case, the court will authorize the change of venue as there is a more appropriate venue that can deal with the matter.
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Requesting The Change of Venue
The parties to a lawsuit can request a change of venue by filing a motion for the change of venue.
In this motion, the moving party must present his or her arguments why the current venue is not proper or ideal and identify to what other venue the case should be transferred.
Just like any other motion, the non-moving party will have the right to challenge the motion and present counter-arguments.
If the court authorizes the change of venue, the matter will be transferred to the new location.
However, if the court does not find sufficient grounds to grant the motion, the motion will be dismissed and the matter will remain at its current location.
Every jurisdiction will have its own requirements relating to the presentation of motions for the change of venue.
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Examples of Changes in Venue
In the United States, there are many high-profile cases where a change of venue was authorized.
Let’s look at some examples.
In 1992, the trial of four LAPD police officers was moved from Los Angeles County to Simi Valley in the context of the Rodney King incident.
In 1995, the OJ Simpson case was moved from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles in the context of the murder of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman.
In 1996, Timothy McVeigh’s trial was moved from Oklahoma to the US District Court in Denver to ensure he can get a fair trial.
These are some examples of criminal cases where the venue was changed particularly to provide the defendant with the best chance of getting a fair trial.
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Takeaways
So there you have it folks!
What does a change of venue mean?
In a nutshell, a change of venue is the transfer of legal action from one location to another location for trial.
There are various reasons why a change of venue can be authorized, such as pretrial publicity, bias, political atmosphere, or any other grounds leading the court to believe that a fair trial may not be possible.
Changing of the venue really means changing the location where the trial will be held.
Now that you know what a change of venue means and how it works, good luck with your research!
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