What is the North Carolina Business Court?

Complex litigation can feel like a maelstrom of paper, business entities, motions, depositions, and disputes involving obscure and difficult legal theories. In North Carolina’s state courts, this is particularly alarming, as you never know which judge you’re going to get. Fortunately, for many of these complicated disputes, we have the North Carolina Business Court.

The Business Court was created by the North Carolina General Assembly as a special court to hear some of our state’s most complicated cases. There are three judges, and although your case technically takes place in the County where you file suit, all hearings and orders occur through a single judge designated to preside over your case.

There are numerous upsides to having a Business Court judge assigned to your case. First, it allows all the issues of the suit to proceed before that same judge, who will become intimately familiar with the facts and issues of the suit. Where legal disputes involve obscure issues and complicated facts, having the same judge for the case’s duration means having more consistent outcomes, in which the arguments are fully processed before being decided.

Additionally, the Business Court judges have a number of staff, usually including at least two highly-qualified full-time law clerks, any number of intelligent extern law students, and a judicial assistant. Along with the Judge, the staff too will become familiar with you, your attorneys, and the legal dispute at-hand.

Lastly, the Business Court judges are usually former attorneys that are extremely experienced with complex commercial legal matters. They’ve probably seen hundreds of legal matters as complex and difficult as yours. This experience, again, goes a long way toward ensuring that the most qualified arguments win the day.

If you believe your complex commercial dispute may qualify for business court designation, don’t hesitate to contact the attorneys at Asheville Legal, and please call us sooner, rather than later. The timing for filing a business court designation must be very precise, and the designation must be carefully crafted. Our commercial litigation lawyers have been down this path a number of times, and we can help usher your matter through the Business Court and toward a positive outcome.