This blog: MUTUAL JURISIDICTION

Given my other advice here (depending on when you read this, there may be one blog or there may be many), I would recommend as a tie-in a mutual jurisdiction clause in your contracts with distributors. It’ll protect you if you exercise any of your rights in the agreement and then deal with a resentful distributor.

First, My Legality clause: The article below is based on my experiences as a distributor, filmmaker and producer’s rep. I am not responsible in any way, shape or form for any results from any actions taken by you, the reader, based on my experiences detailed below. I am not lawyers, I am not giving legal advice, I am just citing examples from my experience. Often I paid a lawyer a hefty fee for the actions we have taken against unscrupulous distributors, and am passing this experience on to you. I recommend you always consult a lawyer when taking legal action against anyone. I also recommend you consult with a lawyer before using any of the below experience to be certain your agreement and/or the law in your area allows for such actions.

Back to a Mutual Jurisdiction Clause, an example may read like this:

GOVERNING LAW: The venue and any governing laws for any actions or disputes arising under or out of this Agreement shall be any court of competent subject matter jurisdiction in the county and state of each respective party, with any action brought only in the opposing party’s jurisdiction – county and state. All parties waive any objection to this course of action. For point of clarification, any action brought by The Producer against The Distributor can only be brought in The Distributor’s county within The Distributor’s state. Any action brought by The Distributor against The Producer can only be brought in The Producer’s county within The Agent’s state.

So say you exercised your rights after a breach given my advice in the previous article. The distributor gets pissed at you for blocking their illegal sales. If they are in California and you’re in Maine, they might figure they would start a suit against you in California courts that would be far too costly for you to fight, forcing you to settle or conform to their demands. A lot of suits are settled or won simple because one party can’t afford the battle, not because the true winner won! But with this clause, they would have to come to Maine to sue you, and they aren’t going to do that when they are in violation of the agreement.

If they file a suit, consult with a lawyer and make sure the lawyer double checks the law in that state – you may just need to simply reply to the court with a “Given my “Governing Law” clause in my agreement with The Distributor, this court does not have jurisdiction of this matter” and that’s it. Maybe you need to supply a copy of the contract, maybe not (maybe it would be better if you reference the agreement and the court requests it from the Distributor). I say for you to have your lawyer double check only because for some states, you need only state the minimum – “This court does not have jurisdiction over this matter” – providing additional details or a copy of the contract may be seen as your defense, which would have to be judged by the court, and the only way they could judge the additional info is by allowing the court to have jurisdiction over the matter. The court would view the additional materials as you accepting jurisdiction and offering a defense, despite your statement saying otherwise. Make sense? Probably not, but that is how our courts work some time. REMEMBER, I speak from experience… I’ve seen this happen as crazy as it seems.

Best of luck,
-Ron Bonk
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President
SRS Cinema LLC.