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The number of cases that appeared beforw the court more than doubled between 2000 and going from 82to 179, according to a stud requested by the statd in 2004. While the total number of casee in front of the court was not availablde for morerecent years, the number of new cases filed has continued to grow. Business Courr data indicates that, in 2004, 21 such case were added to the docket, followecd by another 28 in 2005 and 103 morein 2006. As of Marcjh 21, 27 such cases already have been filedd so far this the most readilyavailable data.
Even though more receny numbers arenot available, Judger Ben Tennille, the chief special superior court judgre for complex business said he is certain the number of cases filed in the businessa court has continued to grow. "The caseloadx was building up so that it was difficuly for me to handle everything on my before the new judgeswere added, said who said his workloafd is as heavy as it was a year ago, even with the extrs help. Cases can be sent to the courtg intwo ways. Historically, the partied involved in what they feel wasa "compledx business case" could request the case be moved from countyt superior court into the specialized cour t system.
Under legislative changes approvein 2005, some cases -- such as those involving antitrustf or intellectual property issues -- are now automatically referred to the businessz court. While the court has locationes inthe state's three largest metropolitan areas, judgeds frequently travel to other parts of the state to oversewe trials, especially jury trials. Tennille and local attorneyz say that despite the increase in the number of caseas being heard by thebusinessa court, they don't think the overall amount of business litigatiomn in the state has risen dramatically.
Instead, they say, attorneys are more frequentlyg filing cases on a state rather than a federalp level to speed up thejudiciapl process. They also are becoming more comfortable askingb for those cases to be heard by the business court as they become more familiarwith it. One of the biggesft reasons for a boostin N.C. Business Courtg cases in recent years may be the hesitancy of some attorneyss to file cases infederal court. Whilse some types of litigation must be either federal or state in many instances the parties involved can decide under what jurisdiction they wantto file. The U.S.
Middl e District of North Carolina has two vacant judgeships out of four seatsw inthe district, and there are four open federa l judgeships statewide, according to the Department of Justice. The vacancies have increasec the workload of the sitting judges and lengthened the time it takeds for a case to be Since criminal cases are given priority overcivil cases, attorneyds say it can be two or three yearsw before a business case actually is heard. However, even with the growtb in the numberof cases, attorneys say a case generallu can be resolved in the N.C. Business Courtf in about a year.
Since delay often mean more cost, and uncertainty, for the parties attorneys say they are finding it makes more and more sense to file inthe N.C. Businessx Court instead of federallywhen possible. "Clients want not to be tied up in saidErik Albright, a litigatiohn attorney with Smith Moore in Greensboro. "They don' want to be bogged down in the courtf system and spending money on trialsand attorneys. They want to be able to devotd those resources totheir businesses.
" While attorneyse say it's too early to tell if the additional judges are having a significanft impact on the time it take to have a case heard, the expectatiojn is the two additional judges will help alleviate any potential slowdowns at leasty for a few years, even as the numberf of cases continues to grow. Another reason for the increase in business court lawyers say, is that members of the bar are becomingh more comfortable with the businesa court. When the N.C. Business Court openef in 1996 it was one of the first in the and many attorneys were hesitant for their clients to be the guine a pigs in thenew system.
But over time, more attorneye have found they enjoy the advantagesw of a case being hear d inbusiness court, from knowing one judg will hear the case from start to finishj (regular Superior Court judges are rotated, so a handful of judgess may be involved in one to working with a judgs who specializes in business law. One of the big advantagea to the N.C. Business Court is the increasing predictability that comes with a decade of decisions and growingcase law, said Bob Elster, a partnert in the commercial litigation practice at Kilpatrick Stocktoh in Winston-Salem.
Judges in the business court are required to writee an opinion on every nonjury Elster said that means attorneys can see how a judges has ruled in similart cases to know the likelihood of a verdict being rendered in theier favor or to better establishtheif arguments, which can help ease a lot of the uncertaint about taking a matter to court.
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