Bell Nunnally Partner R. Heath Cheek and Senior Associate Nathan Cox authored the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) article “How (and Why You May Want) to Get into the New Texas Business Courts.”

Cheek and Cox, the first attorneys to file in the recently created Texas Business Courts, summarize the expected benefits of the new Business Courts as well explore as what cases are within its jurisdiction and what in-house counsel can do to get eligible cases into the Business Courts.

In previewing that they believe will be “an efficient and (hopefully) predictable system,” Cheek and Cox note that the Business Courts differ from other venues for disputes in Texas as judges are only eligible if they have at least ten years of experience in complex civil litigation, business transactions or as a civil district judge – meaning they are more experienced in the narrow subset of cases that will fall in the purview of the Business Courts. And they note, “Due to the limited types of cases and amount of controversy, lawsuits in the Business Courts will compete with far fewer cases for the judge’s attention.” The Business Courts will also have more resources in the form of time to spend per case and dedicated staff attorneys.

Cheek and Cox go on to compare an experience litigating a matter in Delaware’s Chancery Court – one structured similar to the new Texas Business Courts – versus a Texas state court. Their experience is summed up by the opening line of the article, “After we tried a complex business dispute in Texas state court and then an expedited action in Delaware Chancery Court (all in a three-week period this fall), the allure of a new court system in Texas modeled after the Chancery Courts is clear: a more efficient, predictable court system to hear the state’s most complex cases.”

To read the full article, please click here.