A little more than a year after its creation with support from the Roundtable, a state judicial pilot project is succeeding in its goal: It’s moving dozens of complex business lawsuits through the court system more quickly, speeding up justice for all.
Patterned in part after successful projects in other states, in May 2015 the Tennessee Supreme Court established a Business Court Docket Pilot Project with support from legal professionals and groups, including the Roundtable, which advocated for handling business litigation through a separate docket process. “By all measures,” says TN Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeff Bivens, in the eighteen months since its inception “this Pilot Project has been a tremendous success.”
What’s changed? According to the Supreme Court, the Pilot - which has now received over 100 requests for transfer and granted nearly 90 of them - has demonstrated that it’s achieving its intended goals, including:
lower costs for litigants;
removal of complex and time-consuming business litigation from regular dockets;
development of a published body of case law in this litigation area; and
development of innovative court practices.
Court officials reached out to note the Pilot’s success - and to thank the Roundtable for backing its creation. “The Supreme Court and I would like to thank you for having been part of the incredibly successful launch and phase 1 of this successful pilot for the Bar, the litigants and certainly as a tool for Tennessee’s continued economic development success,” wrote Deborah Taylor Tate, Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, in an October 2016 letter to the Roundtable.
Check out pending cases on the Business Court Docket here: https://www.tncourts.gov/node/3938267