Taking a hard look at business courts: Business Law Section asks if the time is right for a statewide business court model.

A new Business Law Section task force could be paving the way for a statewide network of business courts, possibly with one in each of Florida's five appellate districts.

The "Business Courts Task Force" is co-chaired by Jon Polenberg, a shareholder in Becker & Poliakoff, and retired 11th Circuit Judge Gill Freeman, who served as Miami-Dade County's first business court judge.

Polenberg, a member of the Business Law Section's Executive Council, stressed that the task force's first assignment is a need determination.

"Our expectation is we're going to start from scratch," Polenberg said. "We're going to, within the confines of the Florida Constitution, develop a business court system, if it makes sense."

At an August 31 meeting, task force members divided themselves into a series of subcommittees and adopted a mission statement that calls for evaluating the need "for a business court system throughout the state."

The mission statement goes on to say, "If that evaluation suggests there is a need, then design and provide a draft structure for the business courts, identify and secure appropriate resources, support, and funding to implement a business court system throughout the state."

Versions of business or complex litigation courts already exist in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, and until recently, Orlando.

Polenberg said that while the task force has a wide-open agenda, organizers expect the panel to consider a statewide system with permanent funding.

"There are business courts that work on a statewide basis in other states, so we will be benchmarking some of those to see if there's any system that they have put in place that we could model," Polenberg said.

According to a study last year by the National Center for State Courts, 23 states have some form of business or complex litigation courts, including California, New York, and Delaware, where many of the nation's businesses are incorporated.

Proponents say business courts offer big advantages. Business litigants say outcomes are more predictable when a single judge presides over their case, and general civil dockets run more smoothly when they aren't weighed down by time-consuming business disputes.

When she was assigned to Miami-Dade's first business court, Judge Freeman said some cases transferred to her division had been languishing on the general civil docket for 15 years. The biggest challenge in business disputes is case management, Freeman said.

For example, Freeman said, legal...

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