To California, You Go

The Fifth Circuit granted mandamus relief to send a case against Google from East Texas to California in In re Google. The district court focused on evidence that its median time to disposition and trial was faster than the proposed transferee court.

The Fifth Circuit found two flaws in this analysis. First, the Court emphasized that court congestion is the “most speculative” of the Volkswagen factors, and that median litigation timelines are “particularly unreliable” in complex cases, which tend to exceed a court’s average time-to-trial due to greater discovery and briefing demands.

Second, whatever weight the factor may deserve, the district court impermissibly allowed it to override every other factor in the analysis—a result that violated the Fifth Circuit’s longstanding rule that “no factor” in the venue transfer test may be “accorded dispositive weight.”

Because the district court found that all other factors either tipped in favor of transfer or were neutral, the court congestion factor “singlehandedly defeated transfer, in violation of [Fifth Circuit] precedent.” The court was unpersuaded by the argument that this reasoning should apply only when transfer is granted, stating plainly: “What is good for a grant must be good for a denial.” No. 25-40788 (5th Cir. Apr. 7, 2026).