HOUSTON – There has been a sharp decline in case filings at the Harris County District Court during the pandemic, according to a new statistical survey.
Like most professions, COVID-19 had a huge impact on the law community, halting non-essential courthouse operations and forcing attorneys and judges to rely on video conferencing tools to conduct hearings.
Lex Machina, a research company that provides legal analytics to law firms and businesses, surveyed nine state courts during April and May 2020 – revealing the following observations:
- Case filings in state courts were significantly reduced during the shutdown;
- Case filings for limited jurisdiction cases were more impacted than general jurisdiction cases in the California and Texas courts that Lex Machina covers;
- Courts that permitted only essential civil cases to be filed during the pandemic shutdown saw a surge in new filings after courthouses reopened in May; and
- Case filings during April and May 2020 increased for both corporation and commercial law in the Delaware Court of Chancery when compared month-over-month with 2019.
For both Fort Bend and Harris Counties, the new case filings for the county courts were greatly reduced in 2020 compared to 2019.
According to the survey, 3,516 cases were filed in Harris County District Court in April 2018. In April 2019, there were 3,594 for a bump of 2 percent. However, in April 2020, there were only 2,607 filings – a drop of 27 percent from last year’s total.
The numbers for May 2020 are remarkably similar, with a drop of 28 percent in case filings when compared to May 2019.
The decline in filings for Harris County Court were even more drastic – 68 percent for April 2020 and 62 percent for May 2020.
Fort Bend County District Court also saw a substantial decline in case filings in April 2020 (51 percent fewer cases) compared to April 2019, a trend that continued in May 2020 (52 percent fewer cases compared to May 2019).
Fort Bend County Court had a more dramatic decrease in case filings in April 2020 (78 percent fewer cases) compared to April 2019, and the decrease continued in May 2020 (67 percent fewer cases compared to May 2019).
The states covered in the survey include Delaware Court of Chancery, Harris County District Court, Fort Bend County District Court, Fort Bend County Court, Clark County District Court, San Bernardino County Superior Court, Sacramento County Superior Court and Los Angeles County Superior Court.
According to the survey, there was a 53 percent decrease in total case filings in April 2020 compared to April 2019 and a 49 percent decrease in May 2020 compared to May 2019.
Eight of the nine state courts saw a decrease in April 2020 filings compared to 2019 (with a range of 27 percent to 97 percent fewer cases) and a decrease in May 2020 filings compared to 2019 (with a range of 16 percent to 67 percent fewer cases).
One state court - the Delaware Court of Chancery - saw an increase in case filings in 2020 compared to 2019 for both April (4 percent more cases) and May (15 percent more cases).