This past Friday, the Mecklenburg County Bar held its 7th Annual North Carolina Business Court CLE.   If you regularly practice in the Business Court, this is a “must attend.”  There were a number of helpful, relevant, and informative presentations, but the highlight of the CLE was the day’s last session, when attendees heard directly from the Business Court Bench itself, with Chief Judge Bledsoe, Judge McGuire, and Judge Conrad sharing insights and practice pointers.  The session began with Chief Judge Bledsoe providing a compilation of statistics about the Business Court and its cases.  For those of you not in attendance, but nevertheless interested, here’s what I jotted down:

Disclaimer–Any errors in these stats are likely my transcription errors.

Number of Cases Filed in the NCBC by Year:

2013 — 134

2014 — 119

2015 — 141

2016 — 148

2017 — 203 (136 when Charlotte School of Law cases are removed)

2018 — 173 (145 when Charlotte School of Law cases are removed)

2019 (so far) — 91 (on pace for 112 for the year)

 

2019 NCBC filings by County:

Mecklenburg – 24

Wake – 16

Guilford – 8

No other county has had more than four NCBC cases filed in 2019

 

NCGS sec. 7A-45.4(a) Basis for Notice of Designation in 2019 NCBC Filings:

Law of Corporations (7A-45.4(a)(1)) — 55

Trade Secrets (7A-45.4(a)(8)) —19

Securities (7A-45.4(a)(2)) — 11

Breach of Contract where amount in controversy is greater than $1,000,000 (7A-45.4(a)(9)) — 10

Intellectual Property (7A-45.4(a)(5)) — 8

Trademarks (7A-45.4(a)(4)) — 6

Antitrust (7A-45.4(a)(3)) — 3

*These add up to 102, presumably meaning that some of the 91 cases filed thus far in 2019 had numerous statutory bases for designation to the NCBC.

 

Opinions Published by the NCBC by Year:

2013 — 73

2015 — 112

2016 —106

2017 —113

2018 —137

2019 (so far) — 70 (on pace for 85)

*It was noted that while the number of opinions published this year appears to be in decline from prior years, those opinions that have been published in 2019 have been extremely comprehensive, with many of these opinions over 100 pages in length and a substantial number between 50-100 pages in length.

 

Historic Results of Appellate Review of NCBC Cases (from 1/1/14 to Present):

Affirmed — 55

Modified/Affirmed —1

Dismissed — 8

Affirmed/Reversed — 6

Reversed — 2

 

Stay tuned later in the week when I will post a recap of the “practice pointers” and “personal preferences” that Judges Bledsoe, McGuire, and Conrad shared with the group…

–Patrick Kane