Business courts
Business Courts, sometimes referred to as Commercial Courts, are trial courts that primarily or exclusively hear internal business disputes and commercial litigation between businesses. The modern creation of specialized Business Courts in the United States began in the early 1990s, and has expanded greatly in the last thirty years. Business courts (which are often business programs or divisions within existing trial level courts) are operating in New York City and 10 other jurisdictions throughout New York State as the New York Supreme Court Commercial Division, most recently adding the Bronx Commercial Division, Chicago, North Carolina, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Orlando, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Tampa, Florida, Michigan, Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Metro Atlanta regionally and Georgia Statewide, Delaware's Superior Court and Court of Chancery, Nashville, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Indiana, Arizona, Kentucky, South Carolina, West Virginia, and the Wyoming Chancery Court. This mapshows states having business courts either statewide, in multiple counties or cities, or within a single major city or county, which is accurate through April 2023. In New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina and New Jersey, among other states with business courts, the original programs have expanded by adding judges and/or by expanding into additional cities and counties. In 2023, Utah adopted legislation creating a statewide Business and Chancery Court, which will become operational in 2024. On June 9, 2023, Texas' governor signed an Act into law creating a Business Court. The new law becomes effective in September 2023, but the Business Court will not be open for cases until September 2024 at the earliest.
Delaware's Court of Chancery, the pre-eminent court addressing intra-business disputes, has functioned as a business court of limited jurisdiction for a century. However, its traditional equity jurisdiction has evolved and expanded since 2003 to include technology disputes (10 Del. C. § 346), some purely monetary commercial disputes (10 Del. C. § 347), and to expand its role in the alternative dispute resolution of business and commercial disputes. This includes the use of mediation (10 Del. C. § 347), Masters in Chancery to adjudicate matters (10 Del. C. § 350), and agreements to make decisions non-appealable (10 Del. C. § 351).
The significant relationship between business courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution, such as mediation, neutral valuation, and arbitration, is well recognized.
Business and Commercial Courts exist internationally as well, including, for example, England and Wales, Toronto and Quebec, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Hong Kong, Belgium, Bermuda, New South Wales and Victoria Australia, Northern Ireland, Qatar, Dubai, Spain, France, Switzerland, Tanzania, Rwanda, Lesotho, the British Virgin Islands, and Malaysia. New English language commercial courts have been created in Paris, Frankfurt, the Netherlands, Stuttgart | Mannheim, Germany, Singapore, and Kazakhstan.
The American College of Business Court Judges was established in 2005. The Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts was created in 2016.