Whether your business is the plaintiff, seeking to protect its trade secrets, or the defendant, fighting off a complicated breach of contract claim, a lawsuit can quickly grow to become a “bet the company” event. Litigation is an expensive and unwelcome distraction from your money-making activities. It is also risky, imposing uncertainty in everything from how your case will proceed to who will oversee it.
When the case involves complex commercial disputes, however, the Massachusetts court system offers a special forum called the “Business Litigation Session” that can provide the individualized attention necessary to move your case forward efficiently and effectively. The Business Litigation Session, or the “BLS,” is a limited session of the Superior Court that sits in Boston.
When the case involves complex commercial disputes, however, the Massachusetts court system offers a special forum called the “Business Litigation Session” that can provide the individualized attention necessary to move your case forward efficiently and effectively. The Business Litigation Session, or the “BLS,” is a limited session of the Superior Court that sits in Boston.
Perhaps the most important feature of the BLS is the individualized attention your case can receive. Shortly after a case is accepted into the BLS, the court will schedule a case control conference to develop a tracking order that accounts for the unique concerns of your case. Unlike more crowded general sessions, the BLS has a relatively limited caseload and a dedicated clerk, which means motions can be heard and decided more quickly. Litigating in the BLS also means that your case can remain with the same judge, even when the judge rotates out of the session, giving you a level of consistency you may not enjoy in other sessions.
As anyone that has ever been involved in a lawsuit knows, discovery is often the most time consuming and expensive part of the process. The BLS aims to help streamline that stage through its BLS Discovery Project, which sets discovery deadlines and narrows the scope of discovery based on the individual needs of the case, the amount in controversy, the parties’ resources, and the complexity and importance of the issues at stake. Discovery in the BLS can also be staged so that dispositive issues can be developed and decided before the parties sink too much time and money into the lawsuit.
No business wants to find itself embroiled in a commercial dispute, but the BLS may offer an easier path forward and Kenney & Sams can help you navigate towards a good result.