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Achange of venue is thelegal term for moving atrial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move ajury trial away from a location where a fair andimpartial jury may not be possible due to widespreadpublicity about a crime and itsdefendants to another community in order to obtainjurors who can be more objective in their duties. This change may be to different towns, and across the other sides of states or, in some extremely high-profilefederal cases, to other states.
Inlaw, the wordvenue designates the location where atrial will be held. It derives from theLatin word for "a place where people gather."
Notwithstanding its use in high-profile cases, a change of venue is more typically sought when a defendant believes that theplaintiff's selected venue is either improper or less appropriate than another venue. A change of venue request because venue is improper means that the removing defendant believes that the case may not be in that venue because it is improper under procedural rules. A change of venue request can also be made if the defendant believes there is a more appropriate venue – calledforum non conveniens – even if the current venue is proper under theprocedural rules. In these cases, the trial judge is given great deference in mostjurisdictions byappellate courts in making the decision as to whether there is a more appropriate venue.
A change of venue may be reflected in the formal language used in a trial. For example, in California, when abailiff ormarshal calls the court to order part of the cry will take the form "in and for the County of San Francisco"; when there is a change of venue the cry will be, "in the County of Alameda for the County of San Francisco."
InEngland and Wales, theCentral Criminal Court Act 1856 permitted the venue for some high-profile cases to be changed to theOld Bailey inLondon. The Act was passed during the case ofWilliam Palmer and was based concerns that he would not be able get afair trial in his nativeStaffordshire. They would make it easy for him to repeal the case by local publicity surrounding the case.