Lex Machina Releases 2023 Insurance Litigation Report
In the last three years, courts have seen an increase in insurance cases involving a variety of claims, including business liability policy cases, hurricane-related cases, and homeowners policy cases
Menlo Park, CA — June 15, 2023 —Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its annual Insurance Litigation Report. The report examines trends in insurance 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 general insurance cases, business liability policy cases, business interruption cases, hurricane-related cases, homeowners policy cases, and federal appellate insurance cases.
“This report reveals an interesting trend in which insurance cases have increased over the last three years,” said Ronald Porter, Lex Machina’s insurance legal data expert and editor of the report. “In addition, our filters showed that this increase was driven by several key subsets of insurance cases such as business liability policy cases, hurricane-related cases, and homeowners policy cases. Our data and analytics supported the data-driven insights that recent natural and economic phenomena, such as hurricanes, wildfires, a pandemic, and rising building costs, likely bolstered recent insurance case filings.”
Highlights from the report include:
- In 2022, 18,912 insurance cases were litigated in federal district courts, a 30% increase from the number of insurance cases the year before.
- In the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, the highest number of insurance cases was filed in the Western District of Louisiana, while Judge Cain from the same district was the most active judge for insurance cases.
- In the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, State Farm Fire and Casualty Company was one of the most active plaintiffs and also the most active defendant.
- MMA Law Firm was the most active counsel representing plaintiffs in insurance cases in the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, while Porteous, Hainkel & Johnson represented defendants in the highest number of insurance cases over the same period of time.
- For insurance cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2020 to 2022 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 23% were ultimately reversed.
- $530 million in total damages were awarded as Approved Class Action Settlements 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.
Register here for a copy of the report.
Insurance Litigation Report Webcast
Lex Machina is hosting a webcast to discuss the report on June 15, 2023 at noon ET/9am PT with Ronald Porter (Lex Machina’s Legal Data Expert in Insurance 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 anticipate 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.