HOUSTON – An end to the COVID-19 crisis is nowhere in sight. And while case filings dipped in the first few months of the pandemic, lawsuit traffic began to rebound in some state courts over the summer.
Not long after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Lex Machina began examining how the pandemic-driven shutdown affected new case filings in state courts.
A Lex Machina survey of new case filings in ten state courts during June until September 2020 revealed:
- Subsequent to the drop in case filings in April 2020, case filings generally rose in all state courts until July and began to plateau, with small fluctuations, until August;
- In August-September 2020, half of the state courts saw their numbers of total case filings begin to increase, while the other half saw their case filings plateau or decrease;
- Total case filings in September 2020 still remain generally (between 8-52 percent) lower than in September 2019 across seven of the ten state courts examined.
- Case filings for limited jurisdiction cases continue to be more negatively impacted than general jurisdiction cases in the California and Texas courts that Lex Machina covers, suggesting that corporate litigation plaintiffs continue to be less affected in pursuing litigation than individuals.
According to Lex Machina, the ten state courts it surveyed saw a decrease in August 2020 filings compared to 2019 (with a range of 6 to 73 percent less cases). Seven out of ten state courts experienced a decrease in September 2020 filings compared to 2019 (with a range of under 8 to 52 percent less cases).
Three state courts—the Delaware Court of Chancery, Clark County District Court, and Harris County District Court—saw an increase in case filings in 2020 compared to 2019 for September (8, 9, and 3 percent more cases, respectively).
In Texas, civil trial cases may be heard in district or county court, with differences in the matters covered and whether the amount in controversy is unlimited (District Court) or limited (County Court).
For the county courts in both Fort Bend and Harris, the case filings in 2020 declined in April-May, followed by a slight rise and then a plateau. Fort Bend County District Court experienced a similar trend in 2020, though with a more exaggerated plunge in April-May, followed by a more steep recovery in June-July.
Furthermore, the number of cases filed in Fort Bend District Court began to decline during August-September of 2020. Case filings in Harris County District Court followed yet a different pattern: the slight dip in April-May was followed by a steady rise in June-August. In August-September of 2020, the number of cases filed in Harris District Court exhibited a steep climb.
The number of cases filed in both courts in Fort Bend were lower in August 2020 than in August 2019 (27 percent lower for each court). The year-over-year decline remained steady into September 2020 for Fort Bend District Court (24 percent less cases than in September 2019), but the number of cases filed in Fort Bend County Court dropped to significantly lower levels (47 percent less cases) in September 2020 compared to September 2019.
Harris County Court experienced a steady lowered rate of case filings in August and September of 2020 – 50 percent and 49 percent less cases filed, respectively, compared to the same months in 2019.
In contrast, though Harris District Court saw a similar lowered rate of case filings in August 2020 (44 percent less cases filed than in August 2019), the number of cases subsequently filed in the court rose to the point that there was a year-over-year increase of 3 percent more cases in September 2020 compared to September 2019.
Lex Machina provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 16 federal practice areas and select state courts.