What happened: The first cases have been filed in Texas’ specialized business court, which officially launched on September 1.

Remind me: The Legislature created this court in 2023 to handle complex business-to-business cases with the goal of providing quicker decisions and specialized expertise. The court’s first five divisions are now operational in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

Give me the deets: Fort Worth-based construction company Primoris T&D Services LLC filed its lawsuit in the Austin business court division, and Dallas-based real estate company MedProperties Tomball LLC filed in the Houston division.

• These cases will be handled by expert judges appointed by Gov. Abbott who have specific background in business law.

In his own words: “We thought this was just a perfect case to be heard before the business court, not just for us, but we feel like both sides will benefit from it. How [the court] is structured and how it’s set up to deal with this — quicker decisions, getting reasoned awards, written decisions rather than just pro forma one-line decisions like you normally get in state court …  we just felt like the structure was better.” –R. Heath Cheek of Bell Nunnally & Martin LLP, counsel for Primoris

TLR Thoughts: Texas businesses deserve a Texas-based court to resolve highly complex disputes. The Legislature took an important step by creating the business court last session and has an important opportunity to further build out that court’s jurisdiction and our state’s corporate governance laws in 2025.

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