Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Business courts in the United States

The modern creation of specialized Business Courts in the United States, sometimes referred to as Commercial Courts, began in the early 1990s, and has expanded greatly in the last ten years. 

Business courts (or more accurately business programs or divisions within existing trial level courts) have been established and are operating in New YorkChicagoNorth CarolinaNew Jersey, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Reno and Las VegasNevadaMassachusettsRhode IslandMaryland, Orlando, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Tampa, Florida, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Cleveland, Toledo, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Iowa, Jefferson County, Alabama, Maine, New Hampshire, Atlanta and Gwinnett County, Georgia, Colorado's 4th Judicial District, Delaware's Superior Court, and South Carolina. In New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and New Jersey, the original business programs have been expanded by adding additional judges and/or by expanding into additional counties.


Business Courts are trial courts that hear business disputes primarily or exclusively. In the United States, these courts have been established in approximately twenty states. In some cases, a state legislature may choose to create a business court by statute. In other cases, business courts have been established by judicial rule or order, at the Supreme Court or trial court level. In all cases, the jurisdiction of the court to hear certain cases is limited to disputes that are in some way related to "business" disputes, and generally fall into two categories: (1) those courts which require that cases have an additional complexity component; and (2) those courts which establish jurisdictional parameters (i) through a defined list of case types (ii) combined with a specified minimum amount of damages in controversy, irrespective of complexity. There are courts with mixed models as well.

In New York, for example, the Commercial Division may hear cases (1) alleging breach of contract, (2) arising under the state's business corporation law, (3) arising under the state's partnership law, (4) relating to commercial loans, negotiable instruments, letters of credit, and bank transactions, or (5) involving business torts. The Commercial Division may not, by comparison, hear cases involving (1) landlord/tenant disputes, (2) commercial foreclosures, (3) products liability claims, or (4) claims alleging discrimination except when part of or under the terms of a contract.

See also: 

Oakland County Business Court

Lee Applebaum, "The Steady Growth of Business Courts, National Center for State Courts, Future Trends in State Courts (2011)

John F. Coyle, Business Courts and Interstate Competition

Full article on the wiki

No comments:

Post a Comment