Back in January of 2013 I shared that the Iowa Supreme Court began a new specialty court for business cases. According to a recent article from the Des Moines Business Record it sounds as though the court is off to a good start. (Unfortunately the article is only available in the member’s section of the site).
The article has a breakdown of the first 10 cases in the program according to the article:
- Damages over $200,000 included 8 cases
- Injunctive or declaratory relief was sought in 5 cases.
And involved the following criteria:
- Technology licensing agreement – 1 case
- Internal affairs of a business – 6 cases
- Business transactions – 7 cases
- Shareholder derivative/commercial class action – 1 case
- Commercial bank transactions – 1 case
- Trade secrets, non-compete, confidentiality – 2 cases
- Commercial real estate property – No cases
- Antitrust or securities – No cases
- Business Tort Claims – 7 cases
The main benefits I see to the program is that you have judges experienced with business issues. Another significant benefit is that one judge stays with your case throughout the life of the case. Lawyers quoted in the article expressed positive comments about the court thus far. Great to see it’s working well. I have called for such a court since 2008. The business court definitely gives Iowa an important leg up in serving Iowa businesses.