Forum Selection Clause

No statutory language available.

The Iowa Supreme Court has held that forum selection clauses are standard in commercial transactions and will be upheld in Iowa, absent a strong showing by the resisting party that it should be set aside under the circumstances as fundamentally unjust. EFCO Corp v. Norman Highway Constructors, Inc., 606 N.W.2d 297, 299 (Iowa 2000). In EFCO, the defendant attempted to void a forum selection clause by asserting that the contract was one of adhesion. The defendant argued the forum selection clause appeared on the reverse side of the form contract and the officer of the company executing the agreement had testified that he did not read the choice of forum clause. The Iowa Supreme Court concluded: “We believe that this evidence is insufficient to establish the invalidity of the choice of forum clause as a matter of law.” Id. at 300. Under Iowa law, the burden is shifted to the defendant to rebut the presumption that the forum selection clause is valid and should be enforced. See Liberty Bank, F.S.B. v. Best Litho, Inc., 737 N.W.2d 312 (Iowa App. Ct. 2007) (holding that forum selection clauses are prima facie valid and that the defendants had failed to sustain their heavy burden of demonstrating that the forum clause was fundamentally unfair and unreasonable to enforce under the circumstances).