[run4yourlives]

Wow, crazy ass law. I learned something today about my southern neighbours.

But the courts would decide the validity of the request. A single person suing a multi-national billion dollar corporation would have a good case.

Wikipedia has some more info, including certain states that favour the plaintiff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_non_conveniens#United_Sta...

[evgen]

It's not that crazy if you think about it. We have 50 different sets of state contract law and precedence to deal with (unlike your 13 superior courts to watch) and a larger amount of interstate commerce and contracts to be handled. Compounding the problem is that fact that state laws regarding contracts can vary quite widely. While some companies may wish to restrict jurisdiction to states that have a pro-business bias this is less of a factor than you might think (companies sue each other far more often than consumers sue companies) and what most companies are looking for is a single standard to use for the contract. No one wants to learn the hard way that some state changed a law six months ago which completely hoses you for liability or contract enforcement and if a contract could not specify a jurisdiction then companies would be forced to stay up to date on new legal precedents and new legislative efforts in all fifty states.

You can try to change the jurisdiction, but it is hard to do this for a very specific reason.

[socialtistics]

Yeah,it is a little crazy, but kind of makes sense if you think about it when it comes to preventing frivolous lawsuits.

There are ways around it, and as you pointed out you can file locally and try to convince the local court that i should take jurisdiction over the case. But this would cost you money and time. Plus, you would have an uphill battle trying to convince a court to overturn a clause you agreed to in the first place.

While you cannot always do it, at least in the states, if you are negotiating a contract for your business try to get the other party to agree to dual jurisdiction. Basically stating that your local court or their local court can have jurisdiction over the contract. Some parties will agree outright, others will want it to say something like if they sue you it has to be in your court, but if you sue them it has to be in their court.