Delaware Coalition for Open Government, Inc., filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Delaware Court of Chancery and the individual members of its bench. Click here for an article relating to this litigation. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the 2009 enactment of 10 Del. C. § 349 and accompanying Court of Chancery Rules 96 through 98 that allow for an expedited private arbitration proceeding once certain prerequisites are met. The lawsuit claims that the arbitration proceedings employed under the statute and rules and utilized by the Delaware Court of Chancery violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Thus, it will be interesting to see how both sides analyze and apply the various nuances of those Amendments. We will keep a close eye on this proceeding particularly because the enactment of these rules has been touted to increase efficiencies in the litigation of complex commercial cases in Delaware.
