Indiana Creates Commercial Court

Indiana will soon become the 22nd state in the nation to create a type of specialty court dedicated to business cases.  A working group comprised of judges, lawyers, lawmakers, and business leaders will spend the next few months developing policies and procedures for so-called commercial courts.

Under the new system, counties will dedicate one or two courts to handle business cases. The judges in those courts will receive special training and gain expertise in those legal issues.  Indiana Chamber of Commerce President Kevin Brinegar, who’s a member of the working group, says dedicating well-trained judges to commercial courts can be a major benefit for businesses across the state.

“So that there should be more consistency in the decisions and in the application of the law,” Brinegar said.

Allen County Superior Court Judge Craig Bobay is leading the working group and says adding commercial courts can have an enormous impact on the rest of the court system.

“These cases can sometimes drag on for years in courts and thus it delays the courts developing their resources and devoting their attention to other sorts of cases, such as family cases,” Bobay said.

He says the working group’s goal is to have commercial courts up and running next year.