Oklahoma’s Business Courts Are on Hold — What That Means for Your Company’s Next Commercial Dispute
For a few months in 2025, it looked like Tulsa and Oklahoma City businesses were finally getting what large companies in states like Delaware, Texas, and New York have had for years: specialized courts built to handle complex commercial disputes quickly, with judges who actually have business-law experience. Then the Oklahoma Supreme Court shut the whole thing down before a single case was filed. Here’s what happened, and what it actually means if your company is heading into litigation in Tulsa County right now.
What Senate Bill 632 Was Supposed to Do
In 2025, the Oklahoma legislature passed — and Governor Kevin Stitt signed — Senate Bill 632, creating dedicated “business court” divisions within the Oklahoma County and Tulsa County district courts. The pitch was straightforward: commercial disputes are often more complex than a typical civil docket, general-jurisdiction judges are stretched thin across everything from custody fights to criminal dockets, and businesses were increasingly taking their disputes — or their headquarters — to states with more predictable, specialized commercial courts.
The business courts would have handled a specific slice of high-stakes commercial matters, generally with a $500,000 minimum amount in controversy for damages claims:
- Commercial contract and UCC disputes
- Corporate governance and shareholder disputes
- Trade secrets and intellectual property
- Securities and business transaction disputes
- Technology licensing agreements
- Commercial real property disputes
- Antitrust and business-to-business tort claims
Consumer protection, landlord-tenant, personal injury, divorce, and probate matters were explicitly carved out — this was built for business-versus-business fights. Judges would have needed at least 10 years of complex business law experience, and nonjury trials were supposed to move to conclusion within 12 months. Tulsa was slated to house Division II.
Why the Oklahoma Supreme Court Killed It
On October 7, 2025, in White v. Stitt, a divided Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that SB 632 was unconstitutional in its entirety. The problem wasn’t the idea of specialized business courts — it was how judges would have been chosen. Under SB 632, the governor would appoint business court judges from a slate of candidates put forward by the legislature. Article 7, Section 9 of the Oklahoma Constitution requires that district judges be elected by voters (or nominated through the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission process). Because the business courts would have functioned as divisions of the existing district courts, the Court held they were subject to that same requirement — and a legislative appointment process didn’t satisfy it. Writing for the majority, Justice Noma Gurich found the flawed provisions couldn’t be severed from the rest of the law, so the entire statute fell.
What This Means for Your Business Right Now
If you’re a Tulsa-area business anticipating or already in a commercial dispute, here’s the practical bottom line: there is no specialized business court to route your case to. Complex commercial litigation — contract breaches, shareholder disputes, trade secret claims, vendor disputes — currently goes through the same general civil docket as everything else in Tulsa County District Court, in front of judges who may or may not have deep commercial law backgrounds and who are also managing much broader caseloads.
A task force studying the ruling has recommended a legislative fix — likely a constitutional amendment or a redesigned appointment process that satisfies Article 7 — but as of this writing, nothing has been enacted, and there’s no guaranteed timeline for when (or whether) Oklahoma will get a working business court system.
What This Means for How You Should Approach Commercial Disputes
With the business court option off the table for now, a few things matter more than they did while SB 632 was pending:
- Well-drafted dispute resolution clauses matter more. Arbitration and mediation clauses in your contracts can route disputes to decision-makers with real commercial experience — something the general docket can’t guarantee right now. Reviewing these clauses before you sign, not after a dispute erupts, is far cheaper.
- Forum and venue selection deserve real attention. Where you can litigate, and under which state’s law, can meaningfully change your odds and your timeline. This is worth negotiating into contracts on the front end.
- Expect a slower, less predictable track than the business court promised. The 12-month nonjury trial deadline that SB 632 envisioned doesn’t exist anymore. Build realistic timelines into your business planning if litigation is on the horizon.
- Experienced commercial litigation counsel matters even more. When the court system itself isn’t specialized, the expertise has to come from your legal team — someone who knows how Tulsa County judges actually handle complex commercial matters in practice.
- Watch the legislature. If lawmakers pass a corrected version of the business courts law, it could change the landscape again. Businesses with ongoing or anticipated litigation should keep an eye on this rather than assume the current system is permanent.
Why This Matters Beyond the Headlines
It’s easy to read “Oklahoma Supreme Court strikes down business courts” as a procedural footnote. For a company actually navigating a contract dispute, a shareholder disagreement, or a trade secret claim in Tulsa right now, it’s the difference between the streamlined process lawmakers promised and the reality of the existing civil docket. Understanding that gap — and planning around it — is exactly the kind of strategic decision that should happen with counsel before a dispute is filed, not after.
Franden Farris has represented businesses in commercial litigation across Oklahoma for years, well before SB 632 was ever introduced, and we know how Tulsa County’s courts actually handle these cases today. If your company is heading into a commercial dispute, our litigation team can help you think through strategy, venue, and timeline realistically.