Litigation

Delaware Complex Commercial Litigation Division Off To A Strong Start

By Edward M. McNally

In May 2010, the Delaware Superior Court established its Complex Commercial Litigation Division  ( the "CCLD") in response to the growing need for more efficient treatment of complicated commercial litigation.  The Division has special procedures designed to move litigation forward, deal with the problem of electronically stored information and otherwise address issues that have come to plague civil litigation in recent years.  At a seminar on December 7, 2010, one of the judges appointed to the new CCLD, Jan Jurden, reported on its progress.

The CCLD is off to a good start. To date, 30 cases have been filed or transferred to the CCLD and at least 1 trial has been held already.  Judge Jurden confirmed that:

1. The CCLD is prepared to go to trial at almost any time the parties want, even as short as a few months;
2. The Judges assigned to the CCLD are willing to adopt whatever scheduling orders, e-discovery procedures and other case management orders that the parties agree upon to modify the forms of orders that the CCLD would otherwise implement to move matters along efficiently, and
3. The Judges will actively manage cases at a party's request to resolve discovery and other disputes promptly.

In short, the CCLD is well positioned to rival the Delaware Court of Chancery in its ability to provide prompt justice to litigants.

Full post as published by Delaware Business Litigation Report on December 16, 2010 (boomark / email).