HOUSTON — Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today released its annual Insurance Litigation Report, which examines trends in insurance litigation in federal district courts and appellate courts.
Focusing on the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, the report 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; and
- $530 million in total damages were awarded as Approved Class Action Settlements from 2020 to 2022.
A press release states that 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.