Why was a Complex Commercial Litigation Division needed within the Superior Court?
Steele: Before we created this division, complex commercial cases were assigned within a broad mix of diverse cases filed in the Superior Court. We thought that identifying complex commercial litigation cases and sending them to the new division would allow for more uniform and streamlined case administration. Editor: What qualifies a case to be handled by the CCLD? Steele: First the amount in controversy must exceed $1 million or be a case involving an exclusive choice of court agreement or a judgment that results from an exclusive choice of court agreement. What we don’t include in the category is almost as important as what we include, because we want to make sure that our focus is on genuine commercial disputes between heavy-weight litigants. We exclude claims for personal, physical or mental injury. We exclude mortgage foreclosures. We exclude mechanics’ liens or condemnation proceedings and any claim that is brought by an individual that is primarily for personal, family or house
