Pilot Program Aims to Create Specialized Commercial Dockets in Select Ohio Common Pleas Courts

Bridget Purdue Riddell
Bricker & Eckler LLP
June 2008

On June 23, 2008, the Ohio Supreme Court approved a new four-year pilot program creating specialized dockets for complex business litigation in select Ohio counties. To govern the program, the Court adopted a set of temporary procedural rules, which will become effective July 1, 2008. The rules stem from recommendations made by the Task Force on Commercial Dockets, established by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2007.

Under the newly adopted rules, Chief Justice Thomas Moyer will designate one or more sitting common pleas judges in each participating court to act as "commercial docket judges." Initially, judges in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, and Montgomery counties will be invited to participate in the program. Before being assigned a commercial docket, each designated judge will be required to complete an orientation and training seminar provided by the Ohio Judicial College. Once appointed and trained, commercial docket judges will be assigned to a variety of civil cases involving business disputes, including:

• Business formation and dissolution

• Rights or obligations among partners or shareholders

• Trade secrets

• Partner, officer, or director liability, and

• Contract disputes among business entities.

Commercial docket judges, however, will not accept civil cases relating to such cases as:

• Personal injury or wrongful death matters

• Consumer claims against business entities or insurers

• Wage, hour, or workers' compensation disputes

• Environmental claims (except as between business entities) or matters in eminent domain

• Employment law cases (except as between a business entity and an owner)

• Cases in which a labor organization or governmental entity is a party

• Discrimination cases or administrative agency appeals

• Individual residential real estate disputes, foreclosure, or petition actions, and

• Any domestic, juvenile, probate, municipal, or criminal matter.

Specialized commercial dockets, or "business courts" as they are sometimes commonly referred to in other states, is an outgrowth of the specialized court dockets used in Ohio for drug, mental health, and asbestos cases.

The creation of specialized commercial dockets is expected to benefit Ohio's business climate by both expediting the resolution of business disputes and boosting business litigants' confidence that their disputes will be resolved fairly in Ohio courts. The enhanced predictability gained through an expanded body of commercial law precedent, and the specialized expertise gained by commercial docket judges are each expected to contribute to this increased confidence by business litigants. Given these potential benefits, at least sixteen other states have similarly authorized specialized commercial dockets.

The commercial docket program is planned to launch officially on January 1, 2009.