Wrong. When you have elected a forum in a contract it becomes a term of the contract. It creates expectations between the parties to the contract, and the court will enforce the state chosen in the contract as the proper venue.I am willing to bet that the contract of which you speak had not been litigated. I just saw a case dismissed from the Federal District Court in Hartford, Connecticut because the parties to the contract had elected the state court of Rhode Island as the forum for litigation. The Plaintiff was located in Connecticut. The Defendant was located in Rhode Island. The parties had negotiated the contract over the phone. One party signed the contract in Connecticut and mailed the contract to the party in Rhode Island for its signature. The Rhode Island Defendant never entered the State of Connecticut, and therefore did not have significant contacts with the State of Connecticut sufficient to invoke Connecticut's long arm jurisdiction.  The Federal Court had no problem with enforcing the choice of forum elected by the parties in their contract. Although the Plaintiff was located in connecticut and the payrolling dervices which it rendered were performed in Connecticut, the proper venue and jurisdiction for the case was Rhode Island. The case had to be re filed in Rhode Island.