Latin for “inconvenient forum,” forum non conveniens is a term that causes lawyers to cringe — one with the power to conjure up memories of civil procedure classes brimming with fun cases such as Erie Railroad and International Shoe.
But for Miami lawyer Michael S. Olin, it just evokes anger. Olin and his clients, three elderly couples who were injured while traveling the South Pacific in 1994 on an Italian cruise liner, were forced to go to federal court after a Florida appeals panel cited the obscure legal concept in moving their negligence lawsuit to Italy.
