Two years into its existence, the Texas Business Court has proven it can resolve complex business disputes quickly. But so far, the Texas Legislature has only funded five of the 11 divisions it created, leaving West, East and South Texas without access to the business court.
The five funded divisions cover the state’s most populous cities — Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin.
A total of 525 cases have been filed in the Business Court over the last two years. According to the court’s midyear report looking at September 2024 through April 2026, 53 percent of cases have been corporate-governance claims, 37 percent qualified transactions, six percent intellectual property and four percent statutory or regulatory claims.
But in large swaths of the state, attorneys handling complex oil and gas disputes remain subject to local district court dockets packed with criminal, family and civil cases, meaning it can take months for rulings on motions.
Yetter Coleman partner Tim McConn said that while judges in West Texas are sophisticated and capable of handling complex oil and gas dockets, they lack the resources — such as law clerks — that judges in major metro areas have.
He pointed to the 143rd District Court, where Judge Alan Nicholas presides over rural Reeves, Ward and Loving counties. While Judge Nicholas is doing a commendable job of mastering oil and gas litigation, McConn said there should be a business court there.
“I think a business court would be very helpful out there. If you’ve got a lot of high-profile, high-dollar, complicated oil and gas civil cases that the judges out there sometimes struggle to get to just because they have so much on their docket,” McConn said, “and it would be helpful to have a business court that could sort of take those cases and specialize in those cases.”
McConn cited a case he has in West Texas. He and his team argued the case in January, then had to wait six months for a ruling.
“I’m not surprised, and I’m not put out by that because I know that the judge out there. He’ll get to it as quickly as he can, but he’s got a lot of other stuff on his docket — not just oil and gas cases, not just big civil cases, but also car crash cases, medical malpractice cases, criminal cases, family cases,” McConn said.
He added that while judges in rural areas of the state may lack resources, he thinks they may be reluctant to give up the big complex cases.
“I think they’re all intellectually very well equipped to handle those cases. But I think a lot of the reasons why the business courts were created in Harris County and Dallas County would apply equally in Midland County and the counties west of Midland County,” McConn said.
He said that the option to be in the business court should be available to companies across the whole state, not just those in the major metro areas.
Rob Vartabedian of Vartabedian Katz Hester & Haynes agreed that expanding the business court to cover the whole state is an idea that needs more attention.
“To me, it makes sense as something that should at least be considered, given that Texas is not like most states in that we have a largely rural area in the state that has a very unusual amount of complex commercial litigation,” Vartabedian said.
When asked to respond to attorneys expressing an interest the court expanding to cover West Texas and the Permian Basin, Business Court Administrative Judge Grant Dorfman agreed.
“You’re preaching to the choir,” Judge Dorfman said, noting that he believes most oil and gas disputes in more rural areas of the state — ones that would otherwise qualify for business court jurisdiction — are going to arbitration rather than state district court.
“I would love to be able to offer the business court as a venue for those cases. The energy industry has been an early adopter of us. A plurality of our cases is clearly, far and away, energy sector-type cases. I think the model has shown it works where it’s been put up and I’d love to see it expanded based on need,” Judge Dorfman said.
He added that he thinks the business courts would be welcome in the Gulf Coast area, including Corpus Christi, as well as in East Texas.
Judge Dorfman said conversations are already happening ahead of the 2027 legislative session about the expansion of the court.
“It’s already happening,” he said of the discussions. “Whether to take it statewide will be a topic of discussion.”
There’s bipartisan support for expansion, he said.
Michelle Casady contributed to this report.