Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Change to Commercial Division Rules

The Office of Court Administration has asked for public comment on yet another proposed change to the rules of the Commercial Division. This is the fifth proposed Commercial Division rule change on which the court has sought comment in the past two weeks.

The proposed new rule would require Commercial Division justices to schedule "oral argument on a motion" for its own "time slot," "[t]he length of" which would be "solely in the discretion of the court." This would change the practice of some justices of scheduling arguments in multiple matters for the same time. "In order for the court to be able to address any and all matters of concern to the court and in order for the court to avoid the appearance of holding ex-parte communications with one or more parties in the case, even those parties who believe that they are not directly involved in the matter before the court" would be required to "appear at the appointed date and time . . . unless specifically excused by the court."

E-mail comments to rulecomments@nycourts.gov by May 30, 2014.