The Texas Business Court has become a realistic forum for a much wider range of commercial disputes, and your company’s next contract fight may end up there whether you plan for it or not.
Effective September 1, 2025, House Bill 40 lowered an important Business Court amount-in-controversy threshold from $10 million to $5 million and expanded the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction to specified intellectual-property, trade-secret, software, and data-security disputes. For companies with meaningful Texas operations, that can affect contract drafting, litigation strategy, and the first decisions made after a dispute erupts.
Why the Business Court Matters
The Texas Business Court, created by the 88th Legislature and operational since September 2024, is a specialized trial court for qualifying complex commercial disputes. Its procedural framework includes written opinions in specified circumstances. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 359, for example, requires a written opinion on a dispositive ruling when a party requests one and on an issue important to Texas jurisprudence; the court may issue written opinions in other matters as well.
That developing body of trial-court opinions gives commercial litigants something unusual in Texas practice: a growing written record showing how specialized judges are interpreting the court’s jurisdiction and recurring business-law issues.
What HB 40 Changed
1. The threshold dropped from $10 million to $5 million for an important category of cases. That brings substantially more mid-market disputes within the Business Court’s potential jurisdiction. But the amount in controversy is only part of the analysis. The claims must still fall within the statutory grants of subject-matter jurisdiction.
2. Subject-matter jurisdiction expanded. HB 40 added specified claims involving intellectual property, trade secrets, software, and data-security or cybersecurity matters. For technology-heavy commercial disputes, the Business Court is therefore relevant to cases that previously fell outside its original jurisdictional structure.
3. The developing cases show that jurisdiction must be analyzed claim by claim. The early opinions do not support a simple rule that related claims can always be aggregated to cross the $5 million line. In Alamo Title Company v. WFG National Title Company of Texas, LLC, for example, the Business Court closely examined the particular claims, parties, amount in controversy, and relationship to other litigation. The lesson is not that aggregation is automatic. It is that jurisdiction can turn on how the claims and transactions are actually structured.
The Business Problem This Creates
Expanded jurisdiction cuts both ways. A company bringing a qualifying case may prefer a specialized commercial forum. A defendant may have its own reasons to prefer, or resist, Business Court jurisdiction. Removal and remand questions can therefore become strategically important at the beginning of the case.
The change also affects contracts drafted before the Business Court existed. Forum-selection provisions, arbitration carve-outs, and venue clauses should be read with the new court structure in mind. A clause written years ago may operate in a procedural landscape the parties never contemplated.
Practical Takeaways
Audit forum-selection clauses. Review master services agreements, vendor contracts, joint-venture agreements, financing documents, and other significant contracts. Determine whether the language addresses the Business Court expressly or produces an unintended result under the current court structure.
Do not treat $5 million as the entire jurisdictional test. The amount in controversy matters, but so do the nature of the claims, the parties, the transaction, and the particular statutory jurisdictional provision being invoked.
Analyze forum immediately when litigation begins. Business Court removal, remand, venue, and jurisdiction questions can arise early. A company served with a substantial Texas commercial case should determine at the outset whether Business Court jurisdiction exists and whether that forum advances its litigation strategy.
The Strategic Question
The Texas Business Court should no longer be treated as a procedural curiosity reserved for enormous corporate disputes. HB 40 deliberately widened the doorway. For a growing number of Texas commercial cases, forum strategy now includes a specialized court with its own jurisdictional statute, procedural rules, and developing body of written opinions.
The useful question is therefore not simply, “Can this case go to the Business Court?” It is: Does jurisdiction actually exist, and if it does, is that where this particular dispute should be litigated?
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Business Court jurisdiction is statutory and fact-specific, and the law continues to develop.