Sixty-three percent of Americans live in a state with a business court – yet many are unaware these courts exist. Though business courts are intended to hear cases between businesses, a significant number of states hear cases that include workers and consumers, typically relating to product liability, unfair trade practices, misrepresentation, or contract disputes. 

In Delaware and some other states, there are no juries in these courts. Without a jury of ordinary citizens, the decisions are left solely to a single judge or a panel of judges, making it essential that the public know who these judges are.

A new report – Imbalanced Justice: U.S. Business Courts – released last month by the People’s Parity Project reviews the professional backgrounds of the 213 business court judges in 26 states and finds that in seven states – Arizona, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas – more than 90 percent of the business court judges are former corporate lawyers. 

Nationwide, 46 percent of all business court judges are former corporate lawyers. 

The report also found that less than seven percent of American business court judges have experience working as public defenders, legal aid attorneys, or lawyers that represent injured workers and consumers.

“Studies show that judges’ backgrounds can influence the outcome of their rulings. If ordinary people end up in a business court staffed with former corporate lawyers, they would have good reason to question whether the outcome will be fair – or biased in favor of the corporation they are facing,” said Billy Corriher, state courts manager of People’s Parity Project, and report author.

Research supports the connection between professional experience and judicial outcomes.

A 2022 study found that former public defenders were “less willing to render extremely long sentences tantamount to life in prison.” 

Another recent study found that former prosecutors and corporate lawyers were less likely to rule for workers. 

A People’s Parity Project’s report from 2024 found that Housing Court judges in Connecticut who previously worked as corporate lawyers and prosecutors were more likely to evict people than judges with experience representing people. Together, these findings underscore the need to prioritize professional judicial diversity.  

What is a business court?

“A business court is a court that is intended to hear cases involving businesses,” Corriher told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. “These courts were set up to be a little faster than regular courts. They have their own judges which handle the cases from beginning to end.” Regular courts also hear business disputes.

“Yes. Half the states don’t have business courts. But businesses wanted a faster system. They think that the ordinary litigation process takes too long. They are taking all of these steps – including mandatory arbitration – to make it easier for corporations. Business courts are another way to do that.”

“The idea is that what’s good for business is good for the economy.”

How many states have business courts?

“Twenty-six states now have business courts.” What did your report find about business courts?

“We looked at the professional backgrounds of the judges on these courts. And we found that nearly half the judges are former corporate lawyers. That’s far higher than what we see in ordinary state court systems. We found that in some key states, including in North Carolina where I live, one hundred percent of the business court judges are former corporate lawyers.” 

“Overall, we found very few former public defenders or former legal aid attorneys or even trial lawyers who represented injured people. It was mostly just corporate lawyers – lawyers who don’t have experience helping people in need.”

                If it’s a business on business dispute, having a corporate lawyer as a judge makes sense, doesn’t it?

“And that’s how these courts are perceived – handling disputes between businesses, disputes within businesses. But when we looked at the cases in some of these business courts, we found that they are hearing cases involving injured workers and consumers.”

How can it be that these business courts were set up to hear disputes between businesses that you end up hearing injury cases involving individuals?

“It depends on how the legislatures set up these courts. Here in North Carolina, for example, the only thing that has to happen for a case to end up in business court is for our chief justice to deem it a complex case. It can’t be a criminal case, it has to be a civil case.”

“That’s a pretty broad standard – a complex case. Almost any case can be transferred to a business court. In some states like in Maine, they actually call their business court a business and consumer court. Some of these courts were designed with that kind of jurisdiction in mind.”

“In some of these courts, it’s kind of hard to find their rulings. But here in North Carolina, they actually publish all of them on the judiciary’s website. I thought I would have to go back further to find examples of business courts hearing cases of workers and consumers. But it really didn’t take long at all. I was looking at the most recent cases and I found the cases in the report.” 

“Here in North Carolina a disturbing proportion of the cases involve workers and consumers. These cases pop up every week now. Some of the other state business courts are not as transparent, so we didn’t have the time and the resources to look at them in depth.”

“The state of North Carolina has a lawsuit against TikTok, the social media platform, for harming young people. That is not a dispute between businesses. It’s a dispute between the state of North Carolina and a private corporation. It’s about actual harm to consumers. And that case ended up in the business court.”

“There is a lawsuit of patients trying to access their medical records. And that case, for some reason, ended up in business court. That’s not a dispute between businesses.” 

How do they end up in business court?

“The business can file to have the case removed to business court. Or the Chief Justice can move the case to business court on his own.”

You have a section of your report titled – Throwing Out Lawsuits by Workers and Consumers.

“We are worried that we are going to see these former corporate lawyers, now judges in the business court, ruling against workers and consumers. In past research, we have looked at state courts and assessed how often the justices will rule in favor of corporations as opposed to ruling in favor of workers and consumers. And we just tally up how often they tend to rule in favor of one side or the other.”

“We found that in all of these cases, these former corporate lawyers tend to favor corporations over workers and consumers. There is no reason to think that that is not going to be happening in these business courts if they are also hearing cases involving workers and consumers.”

Under the U.S. Constitution, you and I have a right to a jury trial. But these business courts have no juries. Are they constitutional? And has that question been raised in the courts?

“I am not aware of a constitutional challenge to these business courts.”

[For the complete q/a format Interview with Billy Corriher, 26 Corporate Crime Reporter 22(12), June 1, 2026, print edition only.]