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New Jersey Judiciary's Complex Business Litigation Program Goes Statewide

3/24/2015

Commercial Litigation Briefs - March 2015

By Michael L. Rich

Effective January 1, 2015, the New Jersey judiciary expanded its nearly two-decade old Complex Business Litigation Program to operate statewide. The program is designed to handle complex commercial and construction cases that have the potential for $200,000 or more in damages.

The expanded program has an interesting history and purpose. In 1996, the late Chief Justice Wilentz instituted an experimental program to handle complex commercial litigation. A pilot plan for the creation of a complex commercial subtract, limited to Bergen and Essex counties, was developed and implemented. Over the last decade or so, consideration was given to a business court being created as a separate statutory court. Ultimately, however, it was decided that essentially the same result could best be achieved through a separate track within the Superior Court, Law Division, as opposed to a separate statutory court.  Thus, the determination was made to extend the pilot program statewide.

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