New state court takes cases that are strictly commercial.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

A new Commercial Court program is getting down to business in Lane County Circuit Court.

In just five months, it has resolved three complex business lawsuits that could have dragged on through the usual course of the justice system.

Instead, the Commercial Court streamlined the process by appointing one judge to hear all aspects of each case, to guide both sides through the key legal issues and to quickly make rulings on critical points.

"Intensive case management is really the difference," says Circuit Judge Mary Ann Bearden, who presides over the state courts in Lane County and modeled the program on similar courts around the country.

The concept is to involve a single judge early on in large lawsuits generally related to business, such as commercial real estate, insurance coverage, malpractice, class actions, environmental lawsuits, construction defects or land use.

But the program is not just for Lane County. The circuit court, after all, is a part of the state court system, Bearden says. It will be particularly useful, she says, when huge lawsuits turn up in rural circuit courts, where one or two judges handle the circuit's entire docket. Those cases can be sent to Lane County's Commercial Court.

Although the Commercial Court is new, local lawyers are enthusiastic about it, says Mindy Wittkop, president of the Lane County Bar Association.

David Jacobs, a Eugene lawyer who handled one of the first three cases in the Commercial Court, says the program will bolster the whole court system by taking the huge cases out of the regular system so that day-to-day work is less disrupted.

"It really has the potential for making the whole system run a lot smoother with these cases that take on a life of their own," Jacobs says.

Jacobs represented the Eugene School District in a lawsuit filed by the state disputing the wages paid in construction of two elementary schools and renovations at two high schools.

The district won the dispute, saving at least $600,000 in potential extra wage costs and many thousands in legal costs had the case gone to trial.

Paul De Muniz, the chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and the administrative head of the Oregon Judicial Department, says the commercial court sends a signal that the state is attentive to the needs of business.

De Muniz envisions another specialized court to deal specifically with technological issues.

"We ought to try to keep pace with the kind of litigation we see on the horizon," he says.

These specialized courts don't make a judge's job any easier, Bearden says, but it does make it more rewarding, because a judge can see a case through in an efficient manner that promotes cooperation among all the parties.

"There is a lot of satisfaction in a job well done," she says.