New Case Demonstrates the Importance of Forum Selection Clauses

On November 4, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied a motion filed by a company to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a former Libya-based employee. This decision ended the company’s unsuccessful attempts to remove to the Libyan judicial system a complaint filed in U.S. federal courts. The ruling, and a companion decision issued two months earlier, serves as a reminder of the need to include well-crafted forum selection clauses in employment agreements, particularly in the international context.