The Critical Need for Business Courts in
Idaho's Rapidly Growing Economy

By Angelo L. Rosa | Managing Partner at ROSA PLLC & President at ALR Publications Ltd.

Does Idaho have Business Courts?

The short is answer is no, at least not yet.

As a state, Idaho is currently growing at a faster rate than any other in the country. Population has grown an average of 1.8% annually since 2010, with the largest increases occurring over the past five years. Migration from states with higher costs (and lower quality) of living has led to similarly robust growth in the business community.

In each of the past five years, the number of businesses in Idaho has increased at a rate of 4.8% annually to approximately 240,000 ventures. This growth trend is also mirrored in the increased volume of civil litigation filed in Idaho’s district courts. The volume of civil actions filed in Idaho District Courts has increased from 10,277 cases in 2010 to 42,392 in 2023.

As Idaho continues to attract migration of industry as well as individuals, a functional question arises: How will the Idaho legal community adapt to meet the needs of its growing business community?

One of the determining factors in this adaptation is the availability of dispute resolution platforms within the Idaho court system that can competently serve the unique needs posed by business and commercial litigation.

The Role of Business Courts

Business courts, namely courts whose dockets are limited exclusively to commercial disputes and presided over by judges steeped in matters of business law, provide a more informed forum for dispute resolution. Business courts actively function in thirty states across the country, the most recent addition being Texas, whose statewide program began functioning in 2024.

West of the Rocky Mountains, only Nevada and Arizona have functioning business courts. Idaho’s growing business community across multiple industries, combined with its long history of global prominence in the agribusiness sector, makes examining the benefits of a system of business courts not only timely but necessary, both to meet the needs of an expanding economy and to improve the overall efficiency of the Idaho judicial system as it currently exists.

Benefits of Business Courts for Economic Growth in Idaho

Business-friendly states attract business and generate income. States that make it difficult to do business have the opposite effect.
Dispute resolution, including notably through litigation, is a constant fact in the business sector and one that is unlikely to change.

Whether a jurisdiction can offer businesses both a suitable forum for dispute resolution and a competent legal community with strong business law acumen are material factors in choosing where and how to site business operations, corporate bases and principal anchor points within domestic and international supply chains.

Commercial litigation poses both a burden upon and heightened expectations of the judiciary presiding over those disputes.
However, judicial experience and proficiency in such matters is not universal. Most District Judges in Idaho are saddled with consistently expanding dockets whose subject matter crosses much of the civil and criminal spectra.

While Idaho’s judiciary has laudably responded to certain needs for specialism (juvenile, drug and mental courts being notable examples), the same species of need merits consideration of the formation of a dispute resolution platform that can evolve into a fully functioning division of business courts.

Alleviating Idaho’s Judicial Burdens

Setting aside the economic indicators summarized above, integrating a system of business courts into the Idaho judicial system is a timely consideration given three potential areas of benefit:

First is the alleviation of burdens posed to the Idaho judiciary in general. Circumstances require judicial officers, whose dockets include both civil and criminal actions and the multitude of subject matter that exists across the spectrum, to maintain a broader (rather than deeper) approach to dispute resolution.

Similarly, law clerks and other staff supporting the judges are similarly forced to respond to the inordinate breadth and topical diversity of their dockets. The result is an unfair burden on judges who are compelled to know a little of everything. The availability of a complementary system of business courts allows for the allocation of judges whose background (whether in practice or otherwise) includes depth of experience in business law. Easing the burden on judges with broader dockets is thereby alleviated to the benefit of litigants in non-business matters.

Moreover, the close relationship between bench and bar in Idaho where judicial appointments are concerned allows for the vetting processes to focus on attorneys with established credentials and practice experience in business and commercial matters. A well-tailored series of adjustments to the Idaho Judicial Council’s practices, combined with a legislative agenda focused on evolving the statutory framework governing the court system (as set forth in Title 1 of the Idaho Code) will promote a positive effect upon the judiciary overall and, by extension, a benefit to those utilizing the Idaho court system.

Promoting Accountability and Expertise

Second is the promotion of mutual accountability for both judges and attorneys interacting within a business court system. As mentioned above, a benefit of a more bespoke forum for business disputes is the appointment of judicial officers with the appropriate backgrounds and experience. The notion that business-savvy judges can more cogently adjudicate business disputes is proven across the dozens of states with business courts.

Moreover, the existence of a specialized forum can also demand greater accountability from attorneys advising on commercial issues.
Just as a specialized forum allows for a more thoughtful examination of business issues, so too is the expectation that counsel appearing before business courts will have the knowledge and prescience to competently serve the needs of a growing commercial clientele.

As businesses migrate to Idaho from jurisdictions with more evolved bodies of business law and attorneys with deep knowledge of business matters, Idaho’s legal community will be challenged to meet the needs of this client base. The demands imposed by a system designed to adjudicate business matters creates the opportunity for the development of a dynamic and knowledgeable business law community in Idaho.

Enhancing Idaho’s Judicial Economy

Third is the potential for greater judicial economy and increased finality of judgments that do not pose further burdens upon the appellate court system. By pairing judges who understand business law with counsel expected to possess similar understanding, the quality of advocacy and adjudication can translate to more definitive resolutions at the District Court level and the enhanced defensibility of judicial discretion.

The volume of appellate litigation arising from business court decisions and judgments is statistically lower than those arising from courts with more varied dockets. Well-reasoned orders and judgments presided over by judges who understand commerce and the intricacies of business law may narrow the potential bases for meritorious appeals and facilitate a heightened degree of judicial efficiency.

Moreover, the availability of business courts can be conducive to managing litigation risk; the prospect of bringing or defending a factually and/or legally weak case before a judicial officer with a superior ability to objectively assess the merits with an informed perspective can lead to a more selective pursuit of cases, and an increased use of alternative dispute resolution platforms (pre- or post-filing) to resolve conflicts.

Put more plainly, the accountability that business courts would demand from party-litigants can have a practical effect of (as it does in other jurisdictions) “weeding out” disputes more appropriately resolved through means other than litigation.

Conclusion

In summary, the foregoing benefits justify serious consideration of a suitable architecture and implementation of a specialized court system focused on the adjudication of business disputes in Idaho. Expanding the discussion of Idaho’s judiciary to include this topic would reflect both foresight of the long-term needs of a growing state and practical wisdom in the adjustments made to better serve those long-term needs.

The Critical Need for Business Courts in Idaho's Rapidly Growing Economy