EFFORTS ON CHANGE-OF-VENUE ISSUE NEED TO BE REDOUBLED

A recent visit to Cape Girardeau by an official of Associated Industries of Missouri further highlights the need for reform in Missouri's laws regarding venue, particularly that portion of the law that governs where a lawsuit can be filed. Recent news reports across the state have focused on the fact that juries in St. Louis and Kansas City are vastly more generous than juries hearing the same cases in outstate counties. In fact, according to one unnamed judge of the Missouri Supreme Court quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in personal injury cases, juries in St. Louis will award 10 times what any other jurisdiction's juries will award.

The problem for corporate defendants arises out of the fact that if they have any connection with the city of St. Louis (such as a railroad track running through there) they can be sued there and, of more importance, they can't get a change of venue out of the city. Given the fact that such defendants are allowed changes of venue from counties of under 75,000 population, this is a manifest inequity -- a denial of equal justice under law. Why the difference?

The problem is Missouri's antiquated corporate venue statutes, together with Supreme Court Rule 51.03 pertaining to venue in these urban areas. Both cry out for reform, as explained in a recent Wall Street Journal piece entitled "Missouri, the Sue Me State." In the Legislature, Senate Bill 300 was introduced to try to effect reform, but trial lawyers and lawmakers who hew to their line have for the second consecutive year blocked it from even getting out of committee. As for the Supreme Court rule, the Missouri Bar has appointed a special committee to study venue and make recommendations. These efforts will need to be redoubled, because otherwise the venue problem that is getting Missouri lots of unfavorable national publicity isn't going away.

A key question: Do we have a government of, by and for the people? Or is our state government of, by and for the personal injury lawyers of the trial bar?