Where the Texas Business Court stands after year one

In its first year in operation, 185 total cases have been filed in the five operating divisions of the Texas Business Court. A review of the total year’s distribution of those cases across the five divisions is generally consistent with the review done of the Court’s first seven months in April 2025, and reveals that the majority of cases are still filed in the divisions sitting in Houston and Dallas.

Of the 185 cases filed in the Texas Business Court’s first year, almost half (79) have been filed in the Eleventh Division (Houston). A little more than a quarter of the cases (52) have been filed in the First Division (Dallas). Of the remaining 54 cases, 20 have been filed in the Eighth Division (Forth Worth), 17 have been filed in Third Division (Austin) and 17 have been filed in the Fourth Division (San Antonio).

Since our last analysis in April, the Texas Business Court has continued to employ the “exchange of benches” procedure authorized by its enabling legislation. Per this procedure, the presiding judge, Judge Dorfman reassigns cases and permits members of the bench from different divisions to “sit and act for each other” for any pending matters in an effort to “promote the orderly and efficient administration of justice.” See H.B. 19, § 1 (codifying Tex. Gov. Code § 25A.009(f)).

However, Judge Dorfman has only exercised this bench exchange for seven cases filed since April. In contrast, 17 orders for “exchange of benches” occurred for cases filed between September 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. Following the same trend as the first seven months of its existence, the cases exchanged since April have all originated in the Eleventh Division and been sent to judges in the Third, Fourth and Eighth Divisions.

This practice has shifted the burden shown in the above graph, to the graph below, which reflects the Business Court division of the judges currently assigned to the Court’s open cases. While the dockets are clearly still not equal, the goal is to keep each division’s docket manageable and allow the judges the ability to give these complex cases the special attention they deserve.

While the bench exchanges have slowed, litigants filing cases in the Eleventh Division should still be prepared for the possibility that their case will be reassigned to a judge in one of the divisions with lighter dockets.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s Texas Business Court Insider will continue to monitor developments in the Texas Business Court and beyond.