Quarter 1, 2025: Are Business Courts Coming to Oklahoma?
By: Shareholder Spencer C. Pittman
In 2024, the Oklahoma legislature passed Senate Bill 473, which created two new judicial positions in Oklahoma, one in Tulsa County and the other in OklahomaCounty. The judicial seats are unfilled but were created in anticipation of the legislature passing further bills to create a new division of the existing district courts — “business courts.”
Business courts are specialized courts with limited jurisdiction that are narrowly tailored to hear and exercise jurisdiction in matters solely relating to business issues (e.g., when the primary factual basis involves the inner workings of a business). For example, if a plaintiff files a shareholder derivative suit, that suit would fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the new business court. Other specialized courts similar to business courts are called “complex litigation courts.” These courts are intended to divert very complex cases that drain judicial resources or time (such as mass torts and antitrust actions) to highly specialized and trained judges that are experienced in that field.
Over half of the states in America have adopted some model of a business court or complex litigation court. There are various perceived benefits of these specialized courts, such as having a dedicated case management structure which is intended to hear and resolve otherwise highly complex matters by encouraging and facilitating efficiency through the quicker resolution of complex cases more efficiently, improving the efficiency of district courts by diverting the business/complex cases from it, and by having business courts with exceptional experience/training in the field of business matters hearing those particular cases. Proponents of business courts also argue a state with a business court incentivizes economic development by encouraging businesses to move to or establish in the state with a business court.
Shareholder Spencer Pittman serves on a Governor Stitt-appointed task force designed to study the implementation of business courts in Oklahoma. The task force has issued various recommendations to key lawmakers on considerations for a future business court system in a preliminary report in December 2024. Mr. Pittman reports that while both the House and Senate of the Oklahoma legislature have drafted various bills on this topic, the bills will likely proceed to next session due to material differences and to iron out the fine details of this new potential division of the district court in our state.
If you have questions about business courts or their current status in Oklahoma, you can contact Spencer Pittman at [email protected] for further information.