As the year 2024 draws to a close, Docket Alarm analytics reveals that federal litigation is down in comparison to 2023,. 966,675 cases were filed in federal court in 2024, in comparison to 1,056,671 filed in 2023.
Cases in 2023
Cases in 2024
This decrease of about 90,000 cases can be partially explained by the lack of multidistrict litigation. In 2023, the top jurisdiction for federal litigation was the Northern District of Florida, home to the massive 3M Combat Arms Earplugs multidistrict litigation, as covered by Law Street. This case concerned earplugs manufactured by a 3M subsidiary and distributed to soldiers; the lawsuits allege that the earplugs were defective and failed to protect the soldiers. The case settled in 2018 but the settlement claims process continued well into 2023.
The Northern District of Florida served as the court where claims under this lawsuit were filed. Lawsuits against 3M spiked in 2023, but had comparatively little presence in 2024. The Northern District of Florida does not appear in the top 10 of filing jurisdictions in 2024.
Taking Florida’s place in 2024 is the District of Arizona. Similar to the Florida instance, Arizona is home to another growing multidistrict litigation, In re Bard Implanted Port Catheter Products Liability Litigation
In 2024, a greater proportion of the top 10 filing jurisdictions were bankruptcy courts. A forthcoming article will analyze bankruptcies in 2024 in comparison to prior years.
2023 Case Types
Some trends have not changed from 2023 to 2024. Prisoner litigation is a top case type in both years, with around 18,000 cases. It is the top case type in 2024, but it lost out to Products Liability and Civil Rights in 2023.
2024 Case Types
Other top case types in both years include insurance, contract, and immigration – but their order is different, depending on the year. Immigration and employment law cases are up, while personal injury matters are down year-over-year.
Finally, the top non-governmental law firm in federal cases filed in 2024 is Drinker Biddle & Reath. The firm merged with Faegre Baker Daniels in 2020 to become Faegre Drinker, but federal court data occasionally retains pre-merger law firms for long-running cases. THe cases attributed to Drinker Biddle include another mutlidistrict matter against Johnson & Johnson. The firm represents the pharmaceutical company.
The top filing law firm in 2024 was Arnold & Itkin. They are a plaintiff’s law firm; they represent plaintiffs in multistrict cases including the aforementioned same matter against Johnson & Johnson. .
