COVID-19 Has Not Stemmed Flow of New Federal Civil Litigation

April 2020 saw record civil filings in the U.S. District Courts with a total of 56,519 new lawsuits filed—more than double the 24,488 filed just six months ago. Driving this increase has been the growth in suits filed by veterans alleging personal injury from defective 3M earplugs[1]. Even when these suits are removed from the totals, the overall flow of new lawsuits has continued seemingly unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

See Figure 1 and Table 1.


Figure 1. New Civil Suits Filed in Federal District Courts, FY 2020
(October 2019-April 2020)
(Click for larger image)

Veterans' lawsuits against 3M are not distributed in federal courts throughout the country. Back in April of last year as filings began to grow, a judicial panel consolidated veterans' cases involving these allegedly defective 3M earplugs and assigned United States District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida to handle their pretrial matters since they involved common issues and questions of fact about the "design, testing, sale, and marketing of the Combat Arms Earplugs" (case 3:19-md-2885).

Table 1. Veterans Suits Against 3M Climb While Other Federal Civil Litigation Little Changed
Month Veterans Suits
(Florida North)		 All Other Suits in U.S.
19-Oct 373 24,116
19-Nov 598 20,815
19-Dec 118 21,808
20-Jan 7,557 22,184
20-Feb 17,421 21,721
20-Mar 22,995 22,046
20-Apr 34,778 21,741

Only four of the nation's 94 federal judicial districts appeared to have declines that may have signaled some impact of the COVID-19 pandemic—declines between February and April of at least 100 fewer cases, representing a drop of 25 percent or more. These four districts were all centered in or around major metropolitan areas. The Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) saw 378 fewer suits (down 38%), the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) had 239 fewer suits (down 25%), the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) recorded 220 fewer suits (down 34%), and the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) experienced 192 fewer suits (down 38%).

Of the remaining districts, around four in ten experienced small declines while six in ten experienced increased filings. These changes more likely reflect normal month-to- month variation than any impact of COVID-19. Table 2 at the end of this report provides month-by-month civil filings by federal judicial district for the first seven months of FY 2020 (October 2019 through April 2020).

The picture presented for federal civil litigation contrasts sharply with trends in federal criminal prosecutions, which have plummeted due to COVID-19. New federal criminal filings in April 2020 fell by 80 percent after February (when federal office closures began due to COVID-19).

Civil suits brought by the federal government did decline by roughly 30 percent. However, since federally initiated suits are just one to two percent of all civil litigation, this decline had little impact on the civil caseloads of the federal courts.

Table 2. Civil Filings in Federal District Courts by Judicial District, FY 2020
District Oct-19 Nov-19 Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 Apr vs Feb
-All- 24,488 21,414 21,927 29,743 39,141 45,041 56,519 17,378
Alaska 28 28 34 33 30 31 33 3
Ala, M 110 92 163 73 72 82 72 -
Ala, N 177 168 195 154 129 174 167 38
Ala, S 186 108 114 55 70 77 51 (19)
Ark, E 177 167 160 176 162 195 161 (1)
Ark, W 79 57 79 69 63 75 81 18
Arizona 342 207 289 317 254 286 298 44
Cal, C 1,383 1,182 1,212 1,480 1,346 1,461 1,451 105
Cal, E 404 321 357 408 353 364 366 13
Cal, N 994 598 627 758 750 662 777 27
Cal, S 219 207 230 240 190 251 211 21
Colorado 315 271 362 277 316 315 342 26
Conn 180 180 135 150 137 163 166 29
D. C. 375 294 272 278 333 277 266 (67)
Delaware 236 143 169 168 148 157 150 2
Fla, M 831 628 680 652 669 739 739 70
Fla, N 723 856 388 7,740 17,586 23,171 34,970 17,384
Fla, S 966 853 801 889 901 966 848 (53)
Ga, M 117 109 120 105 119 128 125 6
Ga, N 594 554 489 552 528 540 523 (5)
Ga, S 98 89 117 80 83 87 72 (11)
Guam 3 5 5 5 9 1 3 (6)
Hawaii 66 50 42 51 46 46 60 14
Iowa, N 42 33 27 27 32 50 29 (3)
Iowa, S 62 36 43 50 50 51 33 (17)
Idaho 48 45 45 50 54 62 41 (13)
Ill, C 124 90 121 120 119 151 128 9
Ill, N 713 727 700 814 983 637 605 (378)
Ill, S 141 114 89 153 92 95 76 (16)
Ind, N 205 231 190 212 179 197 156 (23)
Ind, S 442 408 445 478 426 510 396 (30)
Kansas 146 124 122 128 104 142 112 8
Ken, E 145 92 129 105 110 155 116 6
Ken, W 155 142 123 138 137 136 128 (9)
La, E 435 541 811 331 269 320 197 (72)
La, M 84 86 61 66 52 75 74 22
La, W 147 117 150 161 116 141 146 30
Mass 236 204 220 216 246 267 233 (13)
Maryland 301 267 245 283 284 299 270 (14)
Maine 59 41 34 35 33 52 30 (3)
Mich, E 342 316 267 249 266 294 250 (16)
Mich, W 151 119 120 98 113 130 106 (7)
Minnesota 199 179 188 422 204 227 196 (8)
Mo, E 308 238 271 208 178 165 170 (8)
Mo, W 169 136 147 160 150 195 166 16
Miss, N 59 57 79 66 73 84 61 (12)
Miss, S 265 227 176 140 161 201 152 (9)
Montana 57 48 52 38 39 62 66 27
N Car, E 97 101 72 93 84 109 86 2
N Car, M 89 69 103 103 95 97 93 (2)
N Car, W 129 93 99 98 103 100 98 (5)
N Dakota 22 26 24 14 18 21 20 2
Nebraska 66 51 53 64 43 61 53 10
New Hamp 88 66 92 184 101 103 115 14
N. J. 1,205 1,364 1,938 1,290 1,691 1,361 2,025 334
N Mexico 98 99 110 98 82 121 119 37
N Mar Is 1 4 3 3 2 1 (1)
Nevada 283 187 271 301 280 250 232 (48)
N. Y., E 650 572 579 605 543 511 351 (192)
N. Y., N 145 149 165 134 137 164 208 71
N. Y., S 1,102 905 953 920 969 896 730 (239)
N. Y., W 232 226 167 214 180 203 222 42
Ohio, N 286 243 206 226 251 228 257 6
Ohio, S 575 597 481 713 645 625 705 60
Okla, E 41 40 32 38 30 33 36 6
Okla, N 63 63 74 40 46 53 44 (2)
Okla, W 98 115 90 92 92 116 109 17
Oregon 189 189 163 181 151 192 187 36
Penn, E 689 576 615 683 650 557 430 (220)
Penn, M 203 166 202 179 190 172 209 19
Penn, W 273 197 220 228 208 210 277 69
Puer Rico 102 67 69 69 57 49 40 (17)
R. I. 65 44 49 51 49 58 36 (13)
S Car 312 270 246 418 468 344 464 (4)
S Dakota 16 22 24 38 37 30 28 (9)
Tenn, E 110 108 104 108 85 98 112 27
Tenn, M 129 112 128 113 100 113 104 4
Tenn, W 110 109 93 109 91 140 93 2
Texas, E 299 278 221 224 263 281 311 48
Texas, N 503 406 370 485 454 421 575 121
Texas, S 681 502 490 528 491 564 517 26
Texas, W 377 298 299 397 378 438 419 41
Utah 164 114 79 77 105 96 102 (3)
Virg, E 355 264 277 239 286 279 301 15
Virg, W 110 109 115 108 105 93 111 6
Virgin Is 30 22 8 17 17 12 9 (8)
Vermont 23 30 22 17 10 25 14 4
Wash, E 102 98 70 97 98 102 77 (21)
Wash, W 312 309 245 255 270 297 267 (3)
Wisc, E 169 153 165 164 174 194 164 (10)
Wisc, W 84 83 90 99 87 125 112 25
W Virg, N 60 49 55 57 69 66 73 4
W Virg, S 87 64 77 104 67 67 94 27
Wyoming 26 20 24 10 25 20 20 (5)

Footnotes

[1] Two earlier TRAC reports published on March 23 and April 22 of 2020 covered the rise in these 3M-related veterans suits.

Each month, TRAC offers a free report focused on one area of civil litigation in the U.S. district courts. In addition, subscribers to the TRACFed data service can generate custom reports by district, office, nature of suit or federal jurisdiction via the TRAC Data Interpreter.