Proper Venue for Small Claims Suit

[StewartPaddaso]

I was just issued papers today that show that I am being sued in small claims court. My question is about the legal issues with the proper Venue.

I live in Iowa. The company suing me set up a store in my town in Iowa. (Their home base is in Wisconsin.) We bought things from their store in my town in Iowa with 30 days terms. We NEVER TRAVELED TO WISCONSIN TO BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM. We got behind in payments and now they are suing us. (We did send some of our checks to the headquarters in Wisconsin but we also made many of our payments in the local Iowa store.) But the papers that I was served today says that I have to appear in Wisconsin at their county court house for the trial.

My questions...

1) Is this legal? Since the transactions occurred in my county here in Iowa shouldn't they be required to sue me here?

2) If they CANNOT sue me from Wisconsin and must sue me in my county where the transactions occured, how or what can I do to have the venue changed? How do I proceed?

Thank you very much for your input.

 

[lwpat]

The question is whether the Wisconsicon court has jurisdiction and the answer is probably not. I assume that you signed some type of credit agreement that had a choice of law clause. It is likely that an Iowa court will find the agreement against public policy but you never know.

Either way, you have two choices. You can answer with lack of personal jurisdiction as your defense. Hopefully, before it comes to trial you can have it paid off. Or you can wait until they try to enforce the judgment and then go to court in Iowa and argue the lack of personal jurisdiction issue.

 

[StewartPaddaso]

Thanks for the Reply

Thank you very much for the reply. Just one clairification (sp?).

So do I write to the Wisconsin court before the court date to give my "defense" which is "the lack of personal jurisdiction" and will that move it to Iowa?

From your answer it sounds like they will put a judgement on me and then I will need to persue something in an Iowa court? Is that correct?

Thanks again for your time!

 

[lwpat]

You will need to check the Wisconsin rules. Usually either you or an attorney have to make what is known as a "special appearance" to contest jurisdicition. Rather than an answer you want to file a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiciton. Some courts will allow you to appear by phone. Talk to the clerk to see if that is possible.