forum

frm/

noun
1.

1.
a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be
exchanged.
"it will be a forum for consumers to exchange their views on medical research"
synony meeting, assembly, gathering, rally, conference, seminar, convention, symposium,collo
ms:
quium, caucus; More

2.

2.
NORTH AMERICAN

a court or tribunal.
Forum shopping is the informal name given to the practice adopted by some litigants to have
their legal case heard in the court thought most likely to provide a favorable judgment.
VERIFICATION AND CERTIFICATION OF NON-FORUM SHOPPING
I, _______________________, of legal age, after having been duly sworn in accordance with law,
depose and state that:
1. I am a plaintiff in the above-stated case;
2. I caused the preparation of the foregoing complaint;
3. I have read the contents thereof and the facts stated therein are true and correct of my
personal knowledge and/or on the basis of copies of documents and records in my possession;
4. I have not commenced any other action or proceeding involving the same issues in the Supreme
Court, the Court of Appeals, or any other tribunal or agency;
5. To the best of my knowledge and belief, no such action or proceeding is pending in the Supreme
Court, the Court of Appeals, or any other tribunal or agency;
6. If I should thereafter learn that a similar action or proceeding has been filed or is pending
before the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, or any other tribunal or agency, I undertake to
report that fact within five (5) days therefrom to this Honorable Court.

___________________________
Affiant

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this ___ day of __________ 200_ at

_________________
affiant
exhibiting
to
me
his
Community
Tax
Certificate
No.____________________ issued on ________________ 200_ at ______________ City.

Doc.

No.

Page
Book

No.
No.

;
;

Series of 200_.

FORUM SHOPPING
Forum shopping is an act of a party, against whom an adverse judgment or order has been
rendered in one forum, of seeking and possibly getting a favorable opinion in another forum, other
than by appeal or special civil action for certiorari. It may also involve the institution of two or more
actions or proceedings grounded on the same cause on the supposition that one or the other court
would make a favorable disposition. Forum shopping exists where the elements of litis pendentia are
present, and where a final judgment in one case will amount to res judicata in the other.
The elements of forum shopping are: (a) identity of parties, or at least such parties as would
represent the same interest in both actions; (b) identity of rights asserted and relief prayed for, the
relief being founded on the same facts; and (c) identity of the two preceding particulars such that any
judgment rendered in the other action will, regardless of which party is successful, amount to res
judicata in the action under consideration. (Cruz v. Caraos, G.R. No. 138208, April 23, 2007, 521
SCRA 510, 520-521, citing Government Service Insurance System v. Bengson Commercial
Buildings, Inc., 426 Phil. 111, 125 (2002). The elements of res judicita are: (a) the former
judgment must be final; (b) the court which rendered judgment had jurisdiction over the parties and
the subject matter; (c) it must be a judgment on the merits; and (d) there must be, between the first
and second actions, identity of parties, subject matter, and cause of action. (Ayala Land, Inc. v.
Valisno, 381 Phil. 518, 528 (2000) cited in PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, vs. JOSEPH JOJO V.
GREY, G.R. No. 180109, July 26, 2010, NACHURA, J.)
Put differently, forum shopping exists when a party repeatedly avails himself of several
judicial remedies in different courts, simultaneously or successively, all substantially founded on the

same transactions and the same essential facts and circumstances, and all raising substantially the
same issues either pending in or already resolved adversely by some other court.
Ultimately, what is truly important in determining whether forum shopping exists or not is
the vexation caused the courts and party-litigant by a party who asks different courts to rule on the
same or related causes and/or to grant the same or substantially the same reliefs, in the process
creating the possibility of conflicting decisions being rendered by the different fora upon the same
issue Forum-shopping exists where the elements of litis pendentia are present, namely: (a) identity
of parties or at least such as representing the same interests in both actions; (b) identity of rights
asserted and relief prayed for, the relief being founded on the same facts; and (c) the identity in the
two cases should be such that the judgment that may be rendered in one would, regardless of which
party is successful, amounts to res judicata in the other (MALABANAN vs. RURAL BANK OF
CABUYAO, INC. G.R. No. 163495, May 8, 2009, Second Division, Tinga, J.).