forum non conveniens

forum non conveniens

(for-uhm nahn cahn-veen-nee-ehns) n. Latin for a forum which is not convenient. This doctrine is employed when the court chosen by the plaintiff (the party suing) is inconvenient for witnesses or poses an undue hardship on the defendants, who must petition the court for an order transferring the case to a more convenient court. A typical example is a lawsuit arising from an accident involving an out-of-state resident who files the complaint in his/her home state (or in the defendant driver's home state), when the witnesses and doctors who treated the plaintiff are in the state where the accident occurred, which makes the latter state the most convenient location for trial.

Copyright © 1981-2005 by Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill. All Right reserved.

forum non conveniens

in private international law, the doctrine that allows a court to decline its own jurisdiction because there is another jurisdiction that can more conveniently try the case.

Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006