1.7 Legal Concepts: Standing, Ripeness, and Venue

A party may bring a suit in court only if he or she has a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy. This is known as standingThe ability of a party to bring suit in court by demonstrating that it has a personal stake in the outcome of the dispute.. In other words, the party must be aggrievedSuffering from a denial of legal rights. by some threatened or actual harm and may not file a suit in which he or she has suffered no injury. For example, Susan, John’s friend, may not file a lawsuit to enforce a contract between John and Tim, as she is not a party to the contract. There are exceptions, however. Environmental groups are granted standing to challenge harms to the environment, not on a claim of specific damage to any specific person, but on the notion of general public harm.

Under the doctrine of ripenessReadiness for court; a case must be developed into an existing dispute before a court will hear it., courts in the United States will not offer an advisory opinionA court’s nonbinding opinion on the constitutionality or interpretation of a law. on supposed controversies that have not yet occurred. In other words, the facts of a case must have developed into an existing controversy warranting judicial resolution before a court may hear it. The court systems of some countries allow for the “what if” lawsuit. The rationale for doing so is that some conflicts may be prevented or resolved proactively if the relevant parties already know how a court intend to rule on the topic. This is not the case in the U.S., as an actual controversyA real legal dispute between two parties that can be resolved by the court. must exist before a court will hear legal claims.

The location where a trial takes place is called the venueThe location where a trial takes place.. Notwithstanding forum shopping, cases usually are heard as near to the location of the parties as possible for reasons of judicial economy and common sense. However, sometimes circumstances dictate that a trial occur outside of a normal venue. For example, if a party feels a judge is biased against him or her or that no impartial jurors can be found in the community, a fair trial in the normal venue may be impossible. In such cases, a motion for a change of venueA request filed by a party to hold the trial outside of a normal venue. may be granted. This was the case for police officers accused of beating Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1992. The case location was shifted after the officers submitted a change of venue motion to Ventura County on the assumption that no jury in Los Angeles could be impartial to the officers because of the widespread publication of a video tape showing the beating. Interestingly, the officers’ acquittal in Ventura County sparked the now-famous riots in south central Los Angeles and prompted a debate over venue rules.

In a more recent example, the media broadly covered the case of four students murdered near the University of Idaho in 2022. Once a suspect was named, the media continued to highlight details of the case and the identity of the murder suspect. In 2024, after concerns about the court's ability to find an impartial collection of jurors, as well as logistical concerns regarding space and personnel available for the case in the initial jurisdiction, the trial against the accused defendant was moved to the capital city of Boise.