Lex Machina Releases 2024 Contracts: Commercial Litigation Report

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Aug 22, 2024, 11:00 ET

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.

Highlights from Lex Machina's 2024 Contracts: Commercial Litigation Report

"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.

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 11,800 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 22 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 Forbes' Best Workplaces in the Bay Area in 2024, Winner of the "Media Excellence Award" for Analytics/Big Data 2024, "Great Places to Work 2023-2024", 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), and 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.

SOURCE Lex Machina