Article
New Jersey Judiciary's Complex Business Litigation Program Goes Statewide
Commercial Litigation Briefs - March 2015
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.
