Law Commons^™

Timing Matters: Promoting Forum Shopping By Insolvent Corporations, Randall Thomas, Robert K. Rasmussen

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Most commentators decry forum shopping. This general hostility extends to forum shopping by firms filing for bankruptcy. Indeed, Congress is considering legislation designed to reduce forum shopping by companies filing for bankruptcy. This article makes two contributions to this debate. First, we show that the current debate is driven almost exclusively by attorneys trying to protect fees rather than by any principled objection to forum shopping. Second, on the merits, we argue that the hostility to forum shopping is misplaced. The near universal condemnation of forum shopping rests on the premise that, at the time the plaintiff selects a forum, …