Why Is Venue So Important In My Personal Injury Case

In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding reviews why venue is very important in a personal injury case, and why this is an interesting question. He reviews the intricacies of Georgia law and how this relates to your case. 

Why is venue so important to the value of my personal injury case? Keep watching this video to learn the answer to this question.

Hi, I’m Ted Spaulding. I’m an Atlanta personal injury trial lawyer and I’m the founder here at Spaulding Injury Law.

This is a real interesting question. Most people don’t even think of this aspect of their case when they’re trying to value it. This is why lawyers are so important when it comes to valuing your case and whether you should take a settlement offer from an insurance company or if you should file suit or try your case. A lot depends on the venue.

So what is venue? Venue is where your case will be tried, to what jury? Are you going to be trying your case in Fulton County? Are you going to be trying your case in DeKalb County or is it going to be Forsyth County or Cherokee County? Believe it or not, the exact same case with the exact same injuries and plaintiff are going to have two totally different values between trying it in Forsyth County and trying it in, let’s say, DeKalb County. Now, those are two good examples. Why? Because DeKalb County is probably one of your best plaintiff venues you can be in is DeKalb County; Forsyth, one of the more difficult ones to be in. Why? Because Forsyth County, jurors tend to be more defense-oriented, okay, and in DeKalb County, jurors tend to be more plaintiff-friendly, if you will, and agree on the plaintiff side.

Now, we say all this with a grain of salt because every case is different, every set of jurors are different. Those are changing over time. We’ve had several jurisdictions that used to be very big defense venues that weren’t good for plaintiffs that have now, kind of, morphed and switched and went from that to neutral to now, a plaintiff’s venue. So these things change over time. It’s why you want to get a trial lawyer who can tell you because when you’re trying to resolve your case, the one in Forsyth County is going to have a different valuation than the one in DeKalb County. You got to know that. And so very important. So venue, huge issue.

Now, where does venue lie? Venue lies, I would say 99% of the time, where the defendant resides, as long as they’re here in the state of Georgia. So if you have a Georgia defendant, let’s say in a car wreck, it’s going to be where they reside at the time you file suit. So if that’s in Cobb County but the wreck was in Forsyth County, it’s still going to be Cobb County, not Forsyth, not where the wreck occurred but where the defendant resides. Only if they’re an out-of-state defendant do you get to maybe use the venue where the wreck occurred.

Now, in some cases, even another reason that you need to get a lawyer involved, there may be a choice of several venues. And that’s rare but it does happen. And when it does, you better know which one to pick because the value can be extremely different, two to three times different, depending on which of those venues you choose, potentially. So be very careful. So venue, very important to the value of your personal injury case in Georgia.

If you have any questions or concerns about venue, about a case that you have, if you’re looking for an attorney and would like to talk to me about your claim or case, be happy to talk to you. You can comment to this video below, give me your information, I’ll reach out to you. You can also go on our website spauldinginjurylaw.com. We have a form on there, you can fill that out. Or you can call me directly. Two phone numbers for you: 770-744-0890 or 470-695-9950. Thanks for watching this video.