If I believe there may be bias, can I request a change of venue for small claims court?

Question

My now former landlord is taking me to small claims over damage to my former rental that I do not believe I am responsible for. The problem is that he was a long time member of the local police force, and so he has a lot of connections inside the local courts. In fact he told me flat out that he has buddies who will make sure this doesn't end well for me. That may have just been an intimidation tactic on his part, but I don't want to risk it.

Can I request a change of venue to a place outside of the city where I might get a less biased judge?

Answer 1

A change of venue is typically requested when the jury might be biased, not the judge. You can request that a judge recuse himself (and be replaced with someone else) if you have knowledge of some specific connection to the plaintiff, for example if he presided over a case where your landlord was a witness for the prosecution. Requesting a change of venue because you think all judges are likely to be biased is unusual.



If I may offer some amateur advice, request the judge recuse himself if you can substantiate a connection to your landlord, and if it is denied or there is not enough evidence, request a change of venue. Even if both motions are denied, you can allege they were denied in error if you appeal--if bias does not come up in the original case, you will probably not be able to discuss it on appeal.

Answer 2

For civil cases, venue is usually the district or county which is the residence of a principal defendant or where they regularly conduct business, where a contract was executed or is to be performed, or where an accident took place. However, the parties may agree to a different venue for convenience. Normally, the venue in a criminal case is the judicial district or county where the crime was committed. The state, county or district in which a lawsuit is filed or a hearing or trial in that action is conducted is called the forum. For various reasons either party to a lawsuit or prosecution may move (ask) for a change of venue, which is up to the discretion of a judge in the court where the case or prosecution was originally filed. Reasons for such a request may include a clause in a contract stating that any action must be brought in a certain other venue, or pretrial publicity may be claimed to have tainted the potential jurors in that venue from rendering an impartial judgment

Answer 3

Yeah, not going to happen in a small claims case. No judge is going to risk being accused of anything over a little small claims case, even for a friend.