Which Courts Deliver Most Corporate Law Judgments? A Research Note

Abstract

In Australia, plaintiffs in civil corporate law matters are generally free to choose between the Federal Court and a state or territory Supreme Court when commencing litigation. This research note outlines the results of research undertaken by the authors indicating which courts deliver most corporate law judgments. The research indicates the states where the Federal Court has had the most impact in recent years in terms of hearing corporate law matters that could have gone to a state Supreme Court. Data is also presented on the numbers of hearing days relating to the judgments. Possible explanations for the differences in the numbers of judgments delivered are explored. One possible explanation is that there are more companies registered in those states which have the courts delivering the most judgments. The data does not support this explanation. However, there is a significant difference between the registrations of all companies and where the top 150 Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed companies (measured by market capitalisation) are registered. This data might provide a possible explanation for some of the differences between the courts in terms of the numbers of judgments delivered because it might be expected that the top 150 companies, because of their size and the extent of their operations, are more involved in litigation than smaller companies. The advantages of allowing plaintiffs to choose between courts when commencing corporate law litigation are discussed. The note concludes with discussion of whether courts compete for corporate law litigation and what might be the incentives to compete.