Our Pittsburgh lawyers regularly serve as local counsel in contractual disputes between parties having almost nothing to do with Pittsburgh.
So then, why Pittsburgh — as the place to file or have to defend a suit?
Can Your Contract Determine The Forum to Bring Challenges?
Yes.
A contract is like a private piece of legislation, governing the parties to the agreement. It can give and take away rights, freely. Parties can bind each other to almost anything:
- The contract can stipulate as to damages for certain things (the cost of a debtor making a late payment on credit card debt); although, a contract may not be punitive.
- By contract, parties can waive the Constitutional right to a jury trial in court to, instead, compel private (and binding) arbitration.
- A contract can also limit the time period to sue from 4 years — for breach of contract — down to two years, or even one year.
Importantly, parties from different states — or countries — can insert a “choice of forum” or “forum selection clause” — to say where suit on the agreement must take place, at the exclusion of all of other places where jurisdiction might be proper.
Choice of Forum – or – “Forum Selection” Clause – Examples
A party outside of PA — may find himself bound (contractually) to sue (or defend) only in Western PA. What are some examples?
The Party Drafting the Contract Picks Home as the Choice of Forum
This is a common scenario: the party drafting a contract will not want to travel far for court — or binding arbitration — should a dispute arise. For example, a Seattle company selling shoes across the USA will typically insert in the fine print of any online sales agreement: all disputes must be resolved in Seattle, Washington. This is permissible. So, any time you travel on a plane (and have lost luggage), or buy things from someone in another state, look at your contract, before filing suit in your home state. Your claim may be precluded. Instead, you may need to hire an attorney in PA, if it’s the place where the contract requires litigation to take place.
Equally Inconvenient Choice of Forum
In complex, multi-party transactions from different states — or countries — the parties must litigate somewhere. In that instance, the parties will often select a forum equally inconvenient to all parties. For example, in once case handled by yours truly, the dispute involved scrap metal sales and exchanges, between different companies based in:
-
- Russia,
- Germany,
- Thailand, and,
- Throughout the USA — companies in California and Alaska.
Each party wanted its home turf as the key place — or forum — to resolve future disputes but, of course, none of the other sophisticated parties agreed. But they had to pick somewhere. One of the parties said, “Hey, when I think of ‘metal’ I think ‘Pittsburgh’!” (Only, Pittsburgh is a former steel town, and was never a scrap metal town). All parties agreed with this “logic,” but mainly because no company had a presence in Pittsburgh to create a home field advantage.
So when a dispute arose, and the Pittsburgh choice of forum applied, all parties started Googling “Pittsburgh lawyers.” The Russian Company found and retained yours truly for PA representation. In fact, we routinely represent people and corporations from locations far from the o’ Burgh n’ nat (you need to local Pittsburgh-er to translate!).
Let’s Get Started!
Contact a Pittsburgh attorney today to assist with any choice of forum matter — requiring any claim or defense in state court, federal court, arbitration (AAA) or otherwise. Even if you’re a lawyer admitted in another state, or you have a lawyer but he’s not admitted in PA, our lawyers regularly get attorneys from other states admitted in PA via pro hac vice.
412.342.0992
