CHANGE THE RULE ON VENUE SHOPPING

A proposed Senate resolution introduced with bipartisan support by Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, urges the Missouri Supreme Court to amend its rule on changes of venue for defendants in civil cases. Senate Concurrent Resolution 3 asks the Supreme Court to change its Rule 51.03 to permit changes of venue for defendants in all cases.

Currently, plaintiffs lawyers file their suits in the city of St. Louis, and under existing rules there is literally nothing the defendant can do about it. An unnamed member of the Supreme Court told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that juries in the city award judgments that are 10 times greater than the same case would be awarded were it brought in virtually any other county in the state. This is, as Sen. Kinder and others have said, nothing less than a "scandal" and a denial of equal justice under law.

The resolution is meritorious and deserves careful consideration by the General Assembly. At the very least it should help get the attention of the Supreme Court. Jo Frappier, Missouri Chamber of Commerce president, is correct when he said of Kinder's effort: "This is really just the first volley in a protracted war to reduce the stranglehold that the Missouri trial attorneys have on the General Assembly."