Let’s face it, when you run a business, things happen. You work hard to create your business, develop your product or service, and create and maintain a customer base. But no one, and no business, is immune from the opinions and grievances of others. Whether it’s an angered employee, customer, business partner, or another contact, someone will likely threaten to sue or will actually sue your business. The harsh reality is that 36-53% of small businesses are involved in at least one lawsuit in any given year,[1] and 90% of all businesses are engaged in lawsuits at any given time.[2] An unfortunate reality of these statistics is that the question for business owners is not if their business will be sued, but when. When your business is sued, the place where the suit is to take place (or, as lawyers call it, the “forum”) is critical not only to the legal strategy of the particular case, but also to your business strategy decisions about operations, footprint, and expansion.
