Court Statistics Reveal Civil Lawsuit Filings are Dropping
Public disinformation campaigns concocted by front groups for insurance companies and powerful corporations are designed to stoke prejudice and fear, and warp public understanding of how our civil justice system works. By manufacturing a mythical “lawsuit crisis,” they are trying to pressure policymakers into shielding wrongdoers from financial liability when their dangerous actions harm innocent people. The numbers prove there is no litigation crisis in our state or our country.
Civil Lawsuit Filings are Dropping Significantly in Illinois:
- Civil case filings in Illinois have dropped 42 percent since 2010.1
- The number of medical malpractice cases filed in Illinois is down 37 percent since 2003.2
- The number of civil cases filed in Cook County dropped 50 percent from 2010 to 2019.3
- The number of asbestos lawsuits filed in Madison County has declined 22 percent since 2013.4
Civil Lawsuit Filings are Dropping Across the Nation:
- Civil caseloads were 5 percent lower in 2019 than they were seven years earlier.5
- Contract cases (predominately businesses suing businesses or other people for money) represented over 40 percent incoming state court civil caseloads for the past eight years.6
- Tort cases consist of roughly 5 percent of incoming state civil court caseloads for the past eight years for which data are available.7
- Medical malpractice cases represent a tiny percentage of civil caseloads in 2019, ranging from 0.01 to 0.55 percent. This range is consistent with NCSC data from the previous seven years.8
- Product liability cases represented a tiny percentage of state civil caseloads in 2019, ranging from 0.0 to 0.74 percent. This range is consistent with NCSC data from the previous seven years.9
- Juries resolved a tiny percentage of state civil cases in 2019, with rates ranging from 0.0 to 0.18 percent, which has remained small for the past eight years.10
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1 “Annual Report of the Illinois Courts, Statistical Summary,” 2010 to 2018, http://illinoiscourts.gov/SupremeCourt/AnnReport.asp
2 “Collar County Medical Malpractice New Suits,” Law Bulletin Publishing Company, reflecting filings through 2018 in 20 Illinois counties including: Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kendall, Kane, Madison, St. Clair and Will.
3 “Annual Report of the Illinois Courts, Statistical Summary,” 2010 to 2019, http://illinoiscourts.gov/SupremeCourt/AnnReport.asp
4 Madison County Circuit Clerk Office. Brian Davis: [email protected]
5 National Center for State Courts, “CSP STAT Overview: Trial Court Caseload Overview, Incoming Trends, 2012-2019,” December 9, 2020, https://www.courtstatistics.org/csp-stat-nav-cards-first-row/csp-stat-ov…
6 See “Total Incoming Cases” 2012-2019. National Center for State Courts, “CSP STAT Civil: Trial Court Caseload Overview, Incoming Caseload Composition – Civil,” December 9, 2020, https://www.courtstatistics.org/csp-stat-nav-cards-first-row/csp-stat-civil
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
PDF Fact Sheet: Court Statistics Reveal Civil Lawsuit Filings are Dropping
