Court still taking care of business

By FRED HORLBECK, Senior Staff Writer

If you build it, they will come.

In the movies, that means baseball players walking out of an Iowa cornfield to play on an immaculate baseball diamond. In the S.C. Business Court, it means devotion to expediting resolution of disputes between corporate litigants.

As the court approaches its third anniversary in September, that devotion has won kudos from practitioners and their clients. And it has resulted in a modest but steady stream of cases after an initial scarcity of filings.

"If you're talking about success in terms of whether it's working efficiently, it is a success. Litigants on both sides of the bar are happy with it," said Cory E. Manning, a Columbia lawyer who chairs the American Bar Association's business courts subcommittee.

The court marked a new milestone on Aug. 19 as longtime circuit Judge Clifton Newman succeeded Judge J. Michelle Childs of Columbia, who had served on the court since its founding. Judge Childs now serves on the U.S. District Court of South Carolina.

Judge Newman, the fourth judge to serve on the court, said he's ready to devote himself to the court's mission.

"Most jurisdictions want business people to not believe that the legal system is an impediment to their business operations," Judge Newman told Lawyers Weekly. "Most business people believe that a good legal system set up to deal with business matters is good for the economic climate of the state."

The court has boosted confidence in that belief, said two of its veteran judges.

"I think it's been very good because the issues tend to be very complicated, and one thing that's very helpful to the business community is that we can resolve the disputes with one judge," said Judge Childs, the newly appointed federal jurist.

Judge Edward W. Miller of Greenville was unavailable for comment, but Judge Roger Young of Charleston agreed with Judge Childs.

Having one judge handle a case from start to finish means the matter is always under the oversight of someone familiar with the facts, arguments and procedural status, Judge Young said. In circuit court, a case may go through multiple judges.

"From the parties' and the lawyers' perspective, I would say it's been a no-lose situation because they get to have the case designated complex. They get it designated to a particular judge that they agree upon. And so I can't see where there's a downside to that," Young said.

"Plus, they get to ask to have the matter fast-tracked and any hearings expedited if they need to," Young said.

Another benefit is the creation of a body of case law. Opinions, posted online at www.sccourts.org/busCourt/index.cfm., are available for businesses "to review and have to guide their decision-making process, which fosters predictability," Manning said.

While the court's three judges work out of just three counties, cases from all 46 are eligible for the program, provided the parties can effect a venue change.

All three judges continue to handle circuit court matters as well. For example, Young said Business Court cases take up about 20 percent of his work time.

The court started in 2007 as a two-year pilot program. In 2009, the Judicial Department extended the program for two more years after a committee appointed by Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal recommended that it continue.

In a Sept. 8, 2009, report, the committee said the court had received 42 case assignments since its inception and that a survey showed that the program met lawyers' expectations.

"If you measure success on how many cases are actually getting in there, I wouldn't say the results are unsuccessful," Manning said. "I would say they're just not as successful as the efficiency concerns, and I think in part that's because people just didn't know about it or don't know about it."

The concept was slow to catch on. About 10 months after the launch, judges were encouraging practitioners at a legal conference to give the court a try.

"Once we started doing a little more advertising and when I say advertising, just allowing groups to ask us to speak or, for example, articles like this and people started to become a little more aware of it, then it made them a little more comfortable with Business Court," Childs said.