For years, defendants in asbestos product liability litigation have been subject to forum shopping – the practice of filing complaints in plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions without regard for the contacts (or, more specifically, the lack of contacts) of the plaintiff or defendant(s) with that jurisdiction. Aside from the inherent bias the practice creates against defendants, forum shopping has resulted in overloaded dockets, moving-target trial dates, and a stymied defense bar in plaintiffs’ preferred jurisdictions.

On January 14, 2014, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Daimler AG v. Bauman, 134 S. Ct. 746, 754 (2014), expressly restricting the scope of general jurisdiction to where a defendant is “at home,” and clarifying that a corporation is “at home” in only two places: its place of incorporation and its principal place of business. Read the article here.