Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case that involved a subcontractor suing a contractor because the sub was not paid for work on a project on Ford Hood, Texas.
• The contractor asked a federal judge to move the case to Virginia, using a piece of the contract that said the contractor could pick where a lawsuit could be heard.
• The sub's lawyers argued that was a terrible idea because the paperwork and witnesses were all in Texas, and the judge and an appeals court ruled that way — but the Supreme Court overturned the decision, saying the contract language was what had to govern the decision, barring an important reason to ignore it.

Dive Insight:

The lesson is to be careful about dispute language in contracts for projects and to give some thought to where it would be best to hear a case if a dispute comes up in federal court. Don't agree to language that would let the case go off to somewhere that would make it hard for your lawyers to give your side of things, say because witnesses couldn't travel. If the contract requires that any suits be brought in state court, the whole problem could be avoided.