Oklahoma has now joined many other states creating specialty business courts to handle complex business litigation. Senate Bill 632 creates two new specialized business courts, which will be located in Oklahoma County and Tulsa County. Oklahoma’s Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, is authorized to appoint a judge for an eight-year term for each location from a list of three candidates provided by the Speaker of the House.
The new business courts will have jurisdiction to hear complex cases. The legislation states that an action is “presumptively complex” if it involves antitrust or trade regulation claims, intellectual property matters including, but not limited to, trade secrets, copyrights, and patents, securities claims or investment losses involving more than two parties, “environmental or toxic tort claims involving more than two parties, ownership or control of business claims, insurance claims, construction defect claims involving many parties or structures, product liability claims or mass tort claims.”
The business courts’ jurisdiction will also specifically include business disputes arising under the Oklahoma Uniform Arbitration Act, the Oklahoma Uniform Commercial Code, the Oklahoma General Corporation Act, the Oklahoma Limited Liability Company Act, the Oklahoma Revised Uniform Partnership Act, the Oklahoma Uniform Limited Partnership Act of 2010, the Oklahoma Uniform Securities Act of 2004, and the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Jurisdiction will also include:
- Shareholder and unitholder derivative actions;
- Matters that relate to the internal affairs of business, including but not limited to, rights or obligations between or among business participants regarding the liability or indemnity of business participants, officers, directors, managers, trustees, controlling shareholders or members or partners;
- Matters where the complaint includes professional malpractice claims arising out of a business dispute;
- Matters involving tort claims “between or among two or more business entities or individuals as to their business or investment activities relating to contracts, transactions, or relationships between or among such entities or individuals,”
- Matters involving breach of contract, fraud, or misrepresentation between businesses arising out of business transactions or relationships, and
- Matters arising from e-commerce agreements, technology licensing agreements including, but not limited to, software and biotechnology license agreements, or any other agreement involving the licensing of any intellectual property rights including, but not limited to, and agreement relating to patent rights and involving commercial real property.
The effective date of the new law is September 1, 2025; however, no action is to be filed, transferred, or removed to a business court prior to January 1, 2026. The measure was approved by the Governor on May 29, 2025.
It appears that the bill effectively consolidates all toxic tort claims to one of two courts in Oklahoma.
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