New York Commercial Division Rules: Thresholds, Discovery, and Filing

The New York Commercial Division rules, codified at 22 NYCRR 202.70, govern a specialized part of the Supreme Court that hears complex business disputes. To get a case in, it has to clear both a county-specific dollar threshold and a subject-matter test. Once in, parties face shorter deadlines, hard caps on discovery, strict formatting standards, and word limits on every brief. Small missteps at the filing stage can keep a case out of the division entirely.

Does Your Case Qualify

Two things have to line up: the amount in controversy and the type of dispute.

The monetary threshold is calculated without counting punitive damages, interest, costs, disbursements, or attorney fees, and it varies by county and judicial district:¹

New York County: $500,000
Nassau County: $200,000
Kings County: $150,000
Queens County: $100,000
Suffolk County: $100,000
Westchester County: $100,000
Eighth Judicial District: $100,000
Bronx County: $75,000
Albany County: $50,000
Onondaga County: $50,000
Seventh Judicial District: $50,000

Shareholder derivative actions skip the threshold entirely and qualify regardless of the dollar amount.¹

On subject matter, qualifying disputes include breach of contract or fiduciary duty arising from business dealings, fraud and misrepresentation tied to commercial transactions, business torts such as unfair competition, and disputes over corporate restructuring, partnerships, joint ventures, or employment agreements that do not primarily involve discrimination claims. UCC transactions, trade secret disputes, technology-related commercial conflicts, and restrictive covenant litigation also qualify. The dispute has to genuinely arise from business-to-business or internal corporate dealings, not a personal or consumer matter that happens to involve money.¹

Several categories are excluded even if the dollar amount is well above the threshold: residential real estate disputes including landlord-tenant matters; commercial real estate cases where the only issue is payment of rent; proceedings by government entities to enforce regulatory or criminal matters; cases that amount to collecting on a money judgment; and election law proceedings. A large personal injury claim is also out, because it is not a commercial dispute. If the assigned justice later concludes a case was routed in by mistake, it gets transferred out.¹

How to Request Assignment

Any party can seek Commercial Division assignment by filing a Request for Judicial Intervention (RJI) with the Commercial Division RJI Addendum attached. The addendum requires a certification that the case meets both the monetary and subject-matter requirements. On the RJI itself, the filer has to designate the case as “Commercial” to flag it for the clerk.¹

The filing has to happen within 90 days of service of the complaint, through NYSCEF. Miss that window and the party generally loses the right to request assignment. Once the clerk confirms the requirements are met, the case goes to a Commercial Division justice who will handle it through trial.¹

A preliminary conference follows within 45 days of assignment, or as soon after as practicable, with at least five days’ advance notice. It can only be adjourned once, for up to 30 days, absent good cause. If the RJI is filed with a dispositive motion, the conference is set within 30 days after that motion is decided.²

If You Miss the Mark on Filing

If the RJI goes in within the 90-day window but the filer forgets to check the “Commercial” box, the case isn’t necessarily lost. Any other party can apply by letter to the Administrative Judge within 10 days of receiving the RJI, asking for a transfer in. Past the 90-day deadline, a party can still seek a late transfer by showing good cause. A non-Commercial Division justice assigned a qualifying case can also request the transfer on the court’s own initiative.³

Transfers run the other way too. If the assigned Commercial Division justice decides a case doesn’t belong, it moves to a general civil part. A party who disagrees has 10 days to challenge by letter to the Administrative Judge, whose decision is final.¹

Discovery Limits You Need to Plan For

Discovery in the Commercial Division runs on tighter rails than general civil practice, and the limits are built into the rules themselves rather than left to the judge.

Interrogatories

Rule 11-a caps interrogatories at 25, including subparts, unless the preliminary conference order says otherwise. The cap applies to consolidated actions as a whole. In practice, interrogatories here focus on identifying witnesses, locating documents, and pinning down the factual basis for claims and defenses.⁴

Depositions

Rule 11-d gives each side 10 depositions, with each one capped at seven hours. When an organization is deposed through multiple representatives, that counts as a single deposition, though the seven-hour cap applies to the deposition as a whole. An individual officer or employee testifying as a fact witness rather than as an organizational representative counts separately. The court can adjust the limits for good cause.¹

Expert Disclosure

Under Rule 13, the parties have to confer on an expert schedule no later than 30 days before fact discovery closes. All expert work — identifying experts, exchanging reports, completing depositions — has to finish within four months after fact discovery ends. Any retained or specially employed expert must provide a signed written report containing a complete statement of opinions, the data relied on, supporting exhibits, the expert’s qualifications and publications from the past 10 years, a list of cases where the expert testified during the past four years, and the expert’s compensation for the engagement. Late expert disclosure without good cause gets excluded at trial.¹

Summary Judgment: Rule 19-a Statements

Rule 19-a governs summary judgment motions. The court may direct the moving party to file a separate, concise statement listing each material fact it contends is undisputed, in numbered paragraphs. The opposing party then has to submit a correspondingly numbered response. Any fact the movant lists and the opponent does not specifically contest is deemed admitted for purposes of the motion.¹

Every statement, from either side, must cite the evidence supporting it. If the opponent fails to answer a numbered paragraph with a specific, evidence-backed denial, the court treats that fact as conceded. The movant must also provide the statement in its original word-processing format on request, so the opponent can build the response efficiently.¹

Formatting and Word Limits

Rule 6 sets the formatting baseline. Papers must be double-spaced in 12-point serif typeface, including footnotes, on letter-size paper with margins of at least one inch. Every electronically filed memorandum needs bookmarks for easy navigation.¹

Hyperlinks matter here. Any memorandum citing a document already on NYSCEF must link to that docket entry. The court may also require links to cited court decisions, statutes, and other authorities. A party who genuinely cannot include hyperlinks for technology reasons can file a good-faith certification instead. Material reached through a hyperlink does not automatically become part of the record, so standard citation form is still required.¹

Rule 17 sets hard word limits. Briefs and memoranda of law are capped at 7,000 words. Reply memoranda cannot exceed 4,200 words and must respond to the opposing memorandum. Affidavits and affirmations are also capped at 7,000 words. The count excludes the caption, tables of contents and authorities, and signature block, but every filing has to include a signed certification from counsel attesting to the word count.¹

Mediation and Settlement Conferences

Rule 3 lets the court direct mediation or neutral evaluation at any stage. The rule encourages counsel to agree on a mediator, and parties can consult any list of approved neutrals maintained in the county where the case is pending. Counsel can also jointly stipulate to a summary jury trial if local rules permit or the court approves.¹

A separate settlement conference before a different justice is available if all counsel jointly request it and the assigned justice agrees it would benefit the parties and further the interests of justice. If approved, the assigned justice arranges for a settlement judge to handle the conference. These options are worth raising at the preliminary conference, because the division’s compressed timelines leave less room for late-stage settlement work.¹

The Accelerated Adjudication Option

Rule 9 offers an optional fast track for parties who want a binding judgment faster than ordinary litigation allows. Both sides have to consent in writing, and the case must otherwise qualify for the Commercial Division. Consent is often built into the underlying contract through an accelerated adjudication clause before any dispute arises.¹

The trade-off is real. Parties who elect this track irrevocably waive:

Jury trial. The judge decides.
Punitive and exemplary damages. Recovery is limited to compensatory damages.
Interlocutory appeals, though the right to appeal the final judgment is preserved.
Personal jurisdiction and forum objections. You cannot later argue the court lacks jurisdiction over you or that the case belongs somewhere else.

Discovery shrinks accordingly. Each side gets no more than seven interrogatories, five requests to admit, and seven depositions capped at seven hours each. Document requests have to be narrowly tailored by time frame, subject matter, and the people or entities involved. All pretrial work, including discovery, motions, and mandatory mediation, must finish within nine months of filing the RJI. Compared with arbitration, accelerated adjudication produces an enforceable court judgment without a separate confirmation proceeding, and discovery is broader than what most arbitration clauses allow.¹

1
New York Courts. Section 202.70 Rules of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court
2
Legal Information Institute. New York Code Tit. 22 202.70.7 – Preliminary Conference
3
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. New York Code Tit. 22 202.70 – Rules of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court
4
Legal Information Institute. New York Code Tit. 22 202.70.11-a – Interrogatories