April 2020 Summary: Ongoing Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Litigation Activity in Federal District Court
Lex Machina continues to explore how courts are affected by the social changes due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Our analysis of court activity through March and the first two weeks of April in 2020 compared to the previous two years revealed the following: Case filings have not yet been significantly impacted year-over-year, though the overall total remains slightly down in 2020 compared to previous years. Case activity is down in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019. COVID-19 is showing up in 2020 court records mainly due to general orders. However, 200+ cases filed since April 1st mention the coronavirus pandemic in [...]
Tracking New Litigation Caused By COVID-19
The social and economic changes due to the COVID-19 crisis are affecting the business and practice of law. In federal district court, we have seen a slowdown in court activity, but not in case filings. In this blog post, we investigate situations in which COVID-19 social and economic changes may be the driving forces behind new case filings. Here is a summary of the trends that we’ve observed so far: COVID-19 Case Filings are Trending Upward. New cases with complaints citing COVID-19 are increasing week-over-week since March 1, including 110% between the weeks of April 12-18 and April 19-25 alone [...]
April Two-Week Update: Ongoing Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Litigation Activity in Federal District Court
Lex Machina continues to explore how courts are affected by the social changes due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Our analysis of court activity in March revealed the following: Case filings have not yet been significantly impacted year-over-year. Case activity is down. COVID-19 is showing up in court records mainly due to general orders regarding procedural changes. To understand whether these trends continue, we compared court activity for the first two weeks of April 2018, 2019, and 2020. Our analysis of court activity in April revealed the following: The trend continues into April: case filings have not yet been significantly [...]
Ongoing Impacts of the Coronavirus on Litigation Activity in Federal District Court
As part of our mission to bring openness and transparency to the law, Lex Machina is exploring how courts are affected by the social changes due to COVID-19. Our work requires us to review what is going on in federal district court every day, and we’d like to share our findings publicly. So, do we see the impact in the data? In terms of the effects of COVID-19 on litigation, it may still be too early to see significant changes in litigation activity, and there's a lot we don't yet know about how COVID-19 will eventually impact litigation. Here's what [...]
Lex Machina Releases its 2020 Patent Litigation Report
This year’s Patent Litigation Report celebrates ten years of legal analytics. With big changes over the last decade in the practice and business of patent law, the analytics tell some exciting stories. This report features federal district court data focusing on 2010 to 2019 overall, as well as a look at 2019. It also covers PTAB data from its inception in 2012 and a discussion of 2019. Highlights in District Court include: Patent case filings declined slightly in 2019 after peaks in 2013 and 2015. While High-Volume Plaintiffs filed over half the patent cases in 2013 and 2015, they filed [...]
Lex Machina Launches Legal Analytics for Harris County Courts
The Lex Machina team is excited to announce Legal Analytics for Harris County. As part of the Houston metropolitan area, Harris County courts are important venues for Texas state court litigation. Lex Machina’s Legal Analytics for Harris County includes two modules: Harris County Court and Harris County District Court. Lex Machina provides valuable data-driven insights about judges, law firms, individual attorneys, and parties in state courts. Thus, practitioners can search for meaningful information from one court, both Harris County Courts together, or across all state offerings. Legal Analytics for state courts is a notable expansion of our platform due to [...]
Lex Machina Launches Legal Analytics for Los Angeles County Superior Court
The Lex Machina team is excited to announce Legal Analytics for Los Angeles County Superior Court. Including over 615,000 cases filed January 2016 or later, this is the largest state court by volume. Now, the analytics that Lex Machina is known for are available for this important state court. Legal Analytics for state courts is a notable expansion of our platform due to the technological challenges involved in utilizing state court information. There is no unified records system for state courts analogous to PACER in federal courts, so our team worked closely with the court systems to understand their docketing [...]
Lex Machina Releases Its First Consumer Protection Litigation Report
Lex Machina has released its first Consumer Protection litigation report. Looking at litigation in federal district court from 2009 to 2018, this is a comprehensive overview of trends and insights for making strategic litigation decisions. A “Consumer Protection” case, as defined by Lex Machina, alleges at least one of the following federal consumer protection statutes: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth in Lending Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or a federal consumer protection enforcement statute, such as the Federal Trade Commission Act or Consumer Financial Protection Act. This report includes data-driven insights into the behavior [...]