In contrast to the downward trend in case filings since 2020, there was a notable spike in the number of general contracts cases, contracts commercial cases, and contracts class action cases filed in federal district court in 2023
MENLO PARK, Calif., Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its 2024 Contracts: Commercial Litigation Report. The report examines commercial litigation trends in federal district and appellate courts. Focusing on the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, it surveys emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, attorneys, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, findings, and damages. The report often focuses on different sets of data, e.g., filtering cases in order to provide analytics on general contracts cases, commercial cases, contracts non-compete cases, contracts and trade secret non-compete cases, contracts franchise agreement cases, contracts class action cases, and contracts appellate cases.
“The vast diversity of contracts cases means there are myriad underlying claims involved that create multiple subsets of cases,” said Karen Chadwick, Lex Machina’s contracts legal data expert and editor of the report. “This creates the perfect opportunity to employ Lex Machina’s nuanced filters to hone the data and analytics to produce the essential data-driven insights that are most relevant to legal practitioners. For example, Lex Machina recently added the ‘non-compete’ tag to the contracts module, which allows attorneys to focus on cases involving non-compete clauses. Now, practitioners are strongly positioned to make data-driven decisions regarding claims involving non-compete provisions in contracts.”
Findings from the report include:
- In 2023, 10,253 contracts cases and 6,654 commercial cases were filed in federal district courts.
- In the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, the highest number of commercial cases was filed in the Southern District of New York, while Judge Selna from the Central District of California was the most active judge for commercial cases.
- Financial institutions dominated the lists of the most active plaintiffs and defendants over the three years from 2021 to 2023.
- In the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani was the most active law firm representing defendants and plaintiffs in commercial cases.
- For contracts cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2021 to 2023 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 31% were ultimately reversed.
- $13 billion in contract damages was awarded from 2021 to 2023.
Lex Machina’s reports and software enable practitioners to devise data-driven litigation strategies. The metrics in this report can help readers decide who to pursue as clients, whether to file a particular motion, or when to settle (and for how much). This research supplements traditional legal research and anecdotal data for a competitive edge in court.
Register here for a copy of the report: https://legal.lexisnexis.com/2024-Contract-Lit-Report
