Court rejects res judicata but upholds dismissal based on forum non conveniens issues
By Nigel Smith
Civil Practice and Procedure,
February 2015
The issue in Bjorkstam v. MPC Products Corp., was whether plaintiffs were entitled to reinstate their complaint against defendants after the circuit court had originally dismissed it based on forum non conveniens and their refiled Texas suit had then been dismissed with prejudice for lack of proper service.
Forum non Conveniens clarified: Glass v. DOT Transportation, Inc.
By Hon. Daniel T. Gillespie & Matthew Friedlander
Civil Practice and Procedure,
February 2010
For many judges and lawyers in Illinois, the doctrine of forum non conveniens appears to be a convoluted discretionary tool. Unlike a motion to transfer venue, which is a purely procedural matter, the doctrine offorum non conveniens allows the judge to transfer a case if he or she decides that hearing a case in the plaintiff’s choice of forum is unfair to the defendant or the public. The doctrine itself applies on an interstate and intrastate basis so long as venue is proper in both forums.
Forum non Madison County
By Terrence M. Madsen
General Practice, Solo, and Small Firm,
November 2003
For those of us who practice outside the world of jury actions for damages in excess of $50,000, it may seem unusual that a plaintiff in a traffic crash case would choose to file the action in a county where neither driver resides, where the accident did not happen and where there are 10 times the number of similar cases pending on the docket and they take, statistically, nearly a year longer to resolve than the county of occurrence.
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