Lex Machina Releases 2023 Consumer Protection Litigation Report

Consumer protection cases continued the slow gradual decline that began in 2017, a case filing trend that was reflected in several subsets of cases including class action, FDCPA, and TCPA cases.

Menlo Park, CA — March 30, 2023 — Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its annual Consumer Protection Litigation Report. The report examines trends in consumer protection litigation in federal district courts and appellate courts. Focusing on the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, it surveys emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, 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 class action, FCRA, FDCPA, TCPA, data breach, and federal appellate cases.

“The decline in the number of consumer protection cases filed each year continues the trend that began in 2017,” said Laura Hopkins, Lex Machina’s consumer protection legal data expert and editor of the report. “What is really interesting is that our data and analytics show the same pattern in crucial subsets of consumer protection cases including class action, FDCPA, and TCPA cases. However, FCRA and data breach cases are both trending upwards, keeping the overall decrease in the number of consumer protection cases declining at a gradual pace. By comparing and contrasting case filing patterns of different types of cases, we can derive an accurate portrayal of consumer litigation from which we can draw important insights.”

Highlights from the report include:

In 2022, 11,327 consumer protection cases were filed, the lowest number of cases filed in any year over the past decade.
The majority of the most active plaintiffs were individual plaintiffs who filed cases that primarily involved claims under the TCPA.
Credit reporting companies dominated the list of the most active defendants, defending themselves in cases that largely involved claims under the FCRA.
Atlas Consumer Law represented plaintiffs in the highest number of consumer protection cases filed in the three-year period from 2020 to 2022.
Jones Day represented defendants in the highest number of consumer protection cases filed in the three-year period from 2020 to 2022.
For consumer protection cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2020 to 2022 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 26% were ultimately reversed.
$4.9 billion in total damages were awarded as Restitution across 109 cases from 2020 to 2022.

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.

Consumer Protection Litigation Report Webcast
Lex Machina is hosting a webcast to discuss the report on March 30, 2023 at noon ET/9am PT with Anya Verkhovskaya (President and CEO of Class Experts Group, LLC), James Vlahakis (Senior Attorney at Vlahakis Law Group LLC), Laura Hopkins (Lex Machina’s Legal Data Expert in Consumer Protection Litigation), and Aria Nejad (Lex Machina’s in-house counsel). Register for the event or view a recording.

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis Legal & Professional® provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 11,300 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About Lex Machina
Lex Machina fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 20 federal practice areas and a rapidly growing number of state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.

Lex Machina was named one of “Legal Tech’s Most Promising Solution Providers” (CIO Review Awards 2022), “Greater Bay Area Top Workplaces 2022” (The San Francisco Chronicle Top Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022), “Legal Tech Company of the Year 2021″ (CIO Review, 2021), “2021 Legal Technology Trailblazer” (National Law Journal Trailblazer Awards, 2021), Winner of the “Media Excellence” Award for Analytics/Big Data (13th Annual Media Excellence Award, 2021). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.