Casting a wary eye on the competition for big-money business cases posed by the United Kingdom, an advisory panel to New York's Commercial Division has developed a proposal it says would drive home that "the London Commercial Court is not entitled to a monopoly on large lawsuits."
The Commercial Division Advisory Council has suggested establishing a "Large Complex Case List" for the management of high-stakes cases. Supporters say the proposal would help stave off competition from across the pond and improve the operations of an overtaxed New York court.
The Administrative Board of the state courts is seeking comment on the proposal, with a Tuesday deadline for responding.
The New York list would be limited to cases where a minimum of $50 million is at issue. Such cases would be heard by Commercial Division judges in the ordinary course of business, in contrast to the U.K.'s defined pool of judges. The proposal would be piloted in the Manhattan Commercial Division, where the current threshold for cases is $500,000.
According to a report prepared by a subcommittee of the New York advisory council, "complex" cases would benefit from procedures and tools that would facilitate a quicker resolution. These resources would include special referees with expertise in discovery such as that of federal court magistrate judges, backup settlement judges and special mediators, and technology that streamlines the exchange of documents and active case management.
New York's complex case proposal was inspired by the U.K.'s "Financial List," a separate docket of financial cases worth at least 50 million pounds ($65.2 million) by John Thomas, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, in July 2015.
Thomas said that the Financial List could "act as a beacon" internationally because "the courts and the judiciary of this jurisdiction are widely respected throughout the world for their expertise, knowledge of the markets, their incorruptibility and their independence."
The New York report said the Financial List is "clearly designed by the U.K. courts to promote London as the premier jurisdiction for resolution of commercial disputes, both to benefit the English judiciary and bar and to enhance the attractiveness of London as a global financial center."
That conviction was underlined for the advisory council by a widely noted speech in New York by Justice William Blair, the U.K. judge in charge of the country's Commercial Court, describing the advantages of the Financial List (NYLJ, Sept. 28, 2016). The report points out the meeting occurred after the Brexit vote "raised questions [about] the future primacy of London as a financial center."