What is forum shopping?

Forum shopping is defined as when a party repetitively avails 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. Forum shopping consists of the following elements:

(a) Identity of parties, or at least such parties as represent 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) 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. (Ortigas & Company Limited Partnership v. Judge Velasco, G.R. No. 109645, January 21, 2015)