A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and/or defendant(s) to another community in order to obtain jurors who can be more objective in their duties. This change may be a few towns away, or across the state.

In law, the word venue designates the location where a trial will be held. It derives from the Latin word for "a place where people gather."

High-profile cases

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Examples of high-profile cases with a change of venue include the trials in Virginia of Beltway sniper attacks defendants Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad. The crimes in the fall of 2002, which caused widespread public terror and news media publicity, occurred in Northern Virginia. Defense attorneys petitioned the local courts that their clients could not receive fair trials locally. In granting the "change of venue" requests, communities with similar demographics but more than 100 miles distant in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach in the far southeastern edge of the state were selected by the judges.

A change of venue may be reflected in the formal language used in a trial. For example, when a bailiff or marshal 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 San Francisco for the County of Alameda."

Criminal law | Legal terms