Question: What is “venue” in a civil case?
Answer: The location of the court where the case will be hear. Any case may be venued, commenced and decided in any court in any county, except, that upon the filing of a pleading or a motion to dismiss allowed by Rule 12(B)(3), the court, from allegations of the complaint or after hearing evidence filed with the motion or in opposition to it, shall order the case transferred to a county or court selected by the party first properly filing such motion or pleading if the court determines that the county or court where the action was filed does not meet preferred venue requirements. On the issue of preferred venue, court look at the following: where most defendants resides or the place where any individual defendant so named resides; or the county where the land or some part thereof are located; or the county where the accident or collision occurred; or the county where either the principal office of a defendant organization is located; or the county where either one or more individual plaintiffs reside, the principal office of a governmental organization is located, or the office of a governmental organization to which the claim relates or out of which the claim arose is located, if one or more governmental organizations are included as defendants in the complaint; or the county or court fixed by written stipulations signed by all the parties named in the complaint; and so on.
