Change of venue

Change of venue

A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, 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 a crime and/or its defendant(s) to another community in order to obtain jurors who can be more objective in their duties. This change may be to different towns, and across the other sides of states or, in some extremely high profile federal cases, to other states.

In law, the word venue designates the location where a trial will be held. It derives from the Latin word for "a place where people gather."

Notwithstanding its use in high profile cases, a change of venue is more typically sought when a defendant believes that the plaintiff's selected venue is either improper or less appropriate than another venue. A change of venue request 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 change of venue request can be made if the defendant believes there is a more appropriate venue - called forum non conveniens - 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.

A change of venue may be reflected in the formal language used in a trial. For example, when a bailiff or marshal calls the court to order part of the cry will take the form "in and for the County of San Francisco"; When there is a change of venue the cry will be, "in the County of Alameda for the County of San Francisco."

An example of a change in venue happening is in the movie A Time to Kill where Jake Brigance wants a change in venue because he believes that the jury will probably be an all white jury, and that is not fair for his black client Carl Lee Hailey.

High-profile cases

Recent examples

In the 20th century, controversial venue changes included the 1992 trial of the four Los Angeles police officers (LAPD) in the Rodney King incident; this trial was moved outside Los Angeles County to Simi Valley in neighboring Ventura County. In the trial of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the court granted a change of venue, and ordered the case transferred from Oklahoma to the U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado presided over by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch. In December, 1999, similar venue changes occurred in the Amadou Diallo murder case in which the NYPD defendants' trial was moved to Albany. More recent examples in the 21st century of controversial venue changes were 2002's publicized cases of Beltway snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, whose publicized crimes in northern Virginia caused their trials to be moved over 100 miles away to the southeastern Virginia cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • change of venue — change of venue: a procedure available under title 28 section 1404 of the U.S. Code for the transfer of a case by a court in which the case is brought to another court where the case could have been properly brought and which would be more… …   Law dictionary

  • change of venue — Law. the removal of a trial to another jurisdiction. * * * change of venue Change of place of trial • • • Main Entry: ↑venue * * * change of venue, a change of the place of a trial …   Useful english dictionary

  • change of venue — The removal of a suit begun in one county or district to another county or district for trial, though the term is also sometimes applied to the removal of a suit from one court to another court of the same county or district. In criminal cases a… …   Black's law dictionary

  • change of venue — The removal of a suit begun in one county or district to another county or district for trial, though the term is also sometimes applied to the removal of a suit from one court to another court of the same county or district. In criminal cases a… …   Black's law dictionary

  • change of venue — noun The removal of a trial to a locale other than that in which the case was first brought before a court. The defense moved for a change of venue, as the media coverage had made selecting an impartial jury from the small town impossible …   Wiktionary

  • change of venue — noun 1. a change of place. 2. Law the removal of trial to another jurisdiction …  

  • change of venue — Law. the removal of a trial to another jurisdiction. * * * …   Universalium

  • change of venue — The removal of a cause for trial from one county to another county. See 56 Am J1st Ven § 42 …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • demand for change of venue — A formal application for change of venue, presenting the ground upon which a change is demanded, and supported by affidavit. 56 Am J1st Ven § 60 …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • venue — ven·ue / ven ˌyü/ n [Anglo French, place where a jury is summoned, alteration (influenced by venue arrival, attendance) of vinné visné, literally, neighborhood, neighbors, from Old French, ultimately from Latin vicinus neighboring] 1: the place… …   Law dictionary

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