Texas Business Courts
members only
Texas in 2023 created a new system of specialty trial courts (“Business Courts”) to hear significant business related disputes and a special intermediate court of appeals to hear appeals from Business Courts. Legislation to create such courts was passed by the 88th Texas Legislative Session which ended on May 29, 2023 and was signed on June 9, 2023 by Governor Greg Abbott. The Business Courts were created by House Bill 19 (“HB 19”) as a new chapter 25A (“§ 25A.001et seq” or “Chapter 25A”) to the Texas Government Code (the “Government Code” or “Gov.Code”) with judges to be appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Senate. A separate bill (“SB 1045”) amended § 22.201 of the Government Code to create a Fifteenth Court of Appeals(“15th Court of Appeals”) to hear appeals from Business Courts. Both HB 19 and SB 1045 became effective September 1, 2023, but will be operational only for actions commenced on or after September 1, 2024 to allow time for the appointment and confirmation of their judges and adopt procedural rules for the operation of the courts.