VENUE - The county in which the facts
are alleged to have occurred and in which the trial will
be held.
Venue is the legally proper place where a particular
case should be filed or handled. Every state has rules
determining the proper venue for different types of
lawsuits. For example, the venue for a paternity suit
might be the county where the mother or the man alleged
to be the father lives; the suit couldn't be brought
in an unrelated county at the other end of the state.
The state, county or district in which a lawsuit is
filed or a hearing or trial in that action is conducted
is called the forum.
The venue is the county from which the jury are to
come, who are to try the issue.
As it is a general rule, that the place of every traversable
fact stated in the pleadings must be distinctly alleged,
or at least that some certain place must be alleged
for every such fact, it follows that a venue must be
stated in every declaration.
In local actions, in which the subject or thing to
be recovered is local, the true venue must be laid;
that is, the action must be brought in that county where
the cause of action arose: among these are all real
actions, and actions which arise out of some local subject,
or the violation of some local rights or interest; as
the common law action of waste, trespass quare clausum
fregit, trespass for nuisances to houses or lands disturbance
of right of way, obstruction or diversion of ancient
water courses, etc.
In a transitory action, the plaintiff may lay the venue
in any county he pleases; that is, he may bring suit
wherever he may find the defendant and lay his cause
of action to have arisen there even though the cause
of action arose in a foreign jurisdiction.
