Contractual provisions fixing venue
§ 501. Contractual provisions fixing venue. Subject to the provisions of subdivision two of section five hundred ten and section five hundred fourteen of this article, written agreement fixing place of trial, made before an action is commenced, shall be enforced upon a motion for change of place of trial.
If two parties signed a written agreement before the lawsuit started picking the county for trial, the court shall enforce it on a motion to change venue. ★ It's mandatory ("shall"), but it yields to § 510(2) (impartial-trial concerns) and to § 514 (consumer-goods clauses are void).
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 2 — The JG-22 CPLR and in Volume 1 — The JG-22 in Plain English.