Law360 is providing free access to its coronavirus coverage to make sure all members of the legal community have accurate information in this time of uncertainty and change. Use the form below to sign up for any of our weekly newsletters. Signing up for any of our section newsletters will opt you in to the weekly Coronavirus briefing.
Sign up for our Commercial Litigation UK newsletter
You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:
Thank You!
Law360 (December 3, 2020, 2:00 PM EST) -- Federal court caseloads have dropped dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early spring, although there were more pandemic-related lawsuits filed in areas such as insurance, securities and contracts, according to data released Thursday by Lex Machina.
Overall, the number of lawsuits filed in federal courts for the first 10 months of 2020 was down 10% compared to the same period last year, according to the Lex Machina analysis. The data, which excluded product liability cases, showed that case filings dropped most significantly in April and May when the government closed courthouses in response to pandemic.
May had the biggest drop-off in case filings, decreasing 26% compared to the same period last year. Filings did begin to pick up in June, and in September reached a total near the 13,314 cases from that month in 2019. However, it was down again in October compared to previous years.
Click to view interactive version
Despite the broader slowdown of court activities, federal courts have seen increases of lawsuits filed for insurance, patent, securities and contract matters in the 10-month period, Lex Machina found.
According to the report, the rise of insurance cases is likely coming from business interruption lawsuits as a result of pandemic-related shutdowns. Similarly, securities and contracts also had a significant number of cases attributable to the COVID-19 crisis.
Patent cases may have increased for other reasons. For example, the recent surge of cases in the Western District of Texas may be tied to new plaintiff-friendly patent rules.
Click to view interactive version
Among all the practice areas, copyright lawsuits saw the biggest drop-off in case numbers with a 37% decrease from last year. Bankruptcy and torts cases were also down by 29% and 28%, respectively. However, Lex Machina predicts both bankruptcy litigation and pandemic-related torts cases will "make their way" to federal courts in the coming years.
"While a drop-off in activity is expected as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect our daily lives, various factors have proven to be significant in affecting activity in a specific practice area or stage of litigation," Lex Machina's report said.
The report also found that the number of cases with findings were down in every judgment event in 2020 compared to the previous two years, and that cases with findings at trial had plummeted 51%.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
Law360 is owned by LexisNexis Legal & Professional, a RELX Group company, which owns Lex Machina.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated data related to cases with findings at trials. The error has been corrected.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
