Lex Machina Releases 2024 Class Action Litigation Report

Case filings for consumer protection, employment and other types of class action litigation rebounded in 2023 after lower numbers in prior years

Menlo Park, CA — Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its annual Class Action Litigation Report. The report examines class action litigation trends in federal district and appellate courts. Focusing on the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, it surveys emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, and damages. The report often focuses on different sets of data, e.g., filtering cases in order to provide analytics on general class action cases, civil rights class action cases, consumer protection class action cases, employment class action cases, and class action appellate cases.

“Our coverage of class action litigation is one of our recent expansions, and we are proud of the complex set of data and analytics that enables practitioners to gain valuable insights by filtering by practice area, class size, and damages, among other parameters,” said Laura Hopkins, Lex Machina's class action legal data expert and editor of the report. “In this report, we share some high-level highlights from this powerful dataset to reveal some interesting litigation trends, including the recent uptick in several sets of class action cases in 2023. The outcome analytics in this report also demonstrate the high amount of damages and attorneys’ fees awarded in this practice area.”

Findings from the report include:

• In 2023, 9,705 class action cases were filed in federal district courts.
• In the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, the highest number of class action cases was filed in the Southern District of New York, while Judge Broderick from the Southern District of New York was the most active judge for class action cases.
• All of the most active plaintiffs were individuals, while the most active defendants included a mix of financial, retail, automotive, and tech corporations.
• In the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, Stein Saks was the most active law firm representing plaintiffs in class action cases, while Dentons represented defendants in the highest number of class action cases.
• For class action cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2021 to 2023 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 33% were ultimately reversed.
• $30.4 billion in total damages were awarded as Approved Class Action Settlements from 2021 to 2023.

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: https://pages.lexmachina.com/2024-Class-Action-Report_LP.html

Class Action Litigation Report Webcast
Lex Machina is hosting a webcast to discuss the report on May 2, 2024 at noon ET/9am PT with Wesley Sze (Senior Associate at Gibson Dunn), Laura Hopkins (Lex Machina’s Legal Data Expert in Class Action Litigation), and Gloria Huang, (Lex Machina’s Product Marketing Manager). Register for the event or view a recording: https://pages.lexmachina.com/2024-Class-Action-Webcast_LP.html

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis® Legal & Professional provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 11,800 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

About Lex Machina
Lex Machina fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 22 federal practice areas and a rapidly growing number of state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to anticipate the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.
Lex Machina was named “Great Places to Work 2023-2024”, one of “Legal Tech’s Most Promising Solution Providers” (CIO Review Awards 2022), “Greater Bay Area Top Workplaces 2022” (The San Francisco Chronicle Top Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022), “Legal Tech Company of the Year 2021” (CIO Review, 2021), “2021 Legal Technology Trailblazer” (National Law Journal Trailblazer Awards, 2021), Winner of the “Media Excellence” Award for Analytics/Big Data (13th Annual Media Excellence Award, 2021). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.