Legal disputes statistics show a broad federal civil docket, but very different patterns by dispute type and outcome. U.S. district courts commenced 290,896 civil cases during the 12 months ending September 30, 2024, while 396,486 civil cases were terminated during the same period. These are U.S. federal-court figures, not a count of every dispute filed in state courts, private arbitration, or informal resolution.
Contents
- Federal civil disputes at a glance
- Contract, property, and consumer disputes
- Injury, tort, and liability disputes
- Employment, civil-rights, and statutory disputes
- How federal civil disputes end
- How long federal civil cases last
- Appeals and EEOC employment litigation
Federal civil disputes at a glance
The U.S. Courts’ Table C-2A reports 290,896 new civil cases in U.S. district courts in fiscal year 2024, a 14.4% decrease from 2023. The measurement covers the 12 months ending September 30, 2024. The same table recorded 141,000 federal-question cases, up 1.9%, and 104,254 diversity-of-citizenship cases, down 32.6%.
Cases involving the federal government moved differently. Civil cases with the United States as defendant totaled 42,567, down 2.5%, while cases with the United States as plaintiff totaled 3,069, down 1.6%. Actions brought under federal statutes totaled 176,025, up 2.3%.
| Federal civil category | Fiscal-year 2024 cases | Change from 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases commenced | 290,896 | -14.4% |
| Federal-question cases | 141,000 | +1.9% |
| Diversity-of-citizenship cases | 104,254 | -32.6% |
| Actions under federal statutes | 176,025 | +2.3% |
| Prisoner petitions | 49,182 | -2.3% |
| Social Security law cases | 13,881 | -7.6% |
| Immigration-related civil cases | 12,218 | +9.7% |
Prisoner-petition cases totaled 49,182, down 2.3%. Social Security law cases totaled 13,881, down 7.6%, while immigration-related civil cases totaled 12,218, up 9.7%. These categories describe federal district-court filings by jurisdiction and nature of suit; they do not establish how strong or weak an individual claim was.
Contract, property, and consumer disputes
Contract actions produced 29,102 new U.S. district-court civil cases in fiscal year 2024, down 7.2% from 2023. Insurance disputes accounted for 13,488 cases, down 23.5%. Other contract actions totaled 13,497, up 15.9%.
Property-related cases were smaller in volume but varied sharply in year-over-year direction. Real-property actions totaled 4,787, up 6.0%. Foreclosure cases totaled 1,215, down 10.2%, while rent, lease, and ejectment cases totaled 1,046, up 41.0%.
Consumer-credit cases totaled 8,731, up 7.7%. Tax suits totaled 517, down 4.8%. Freedom of Information Act cases totaled 959, up 13.4%, and cable and satellite television disputes totaled 471, up 23.9%.
The categories should be read as separate court classifications rather than a single measure of household legal problems. For example, a federal filing count does not include every eviction, contract disagreement, or consumer complaint handled in state court or outside court.
Injury, tort, and liability disputes
Tort actions totaled 80,982 new federal civil cases in fiscal year 2024, down 38.5% from 2023. Personal-injury cases totaled 76,390, down 40.1%. Within the reported personal-injury classifications, personal-injury and product-liability cases totaled 54,192, down 47.9%.
Health-care and pharmaceutical disputes totaled 17,276, down 54.3%, while other personal-injury cases totaled 22,198, down 5.0%. Motor-vehicle personal-injury cases moved in the opposite direction, totaling 6,394 and rising 9.6%.
| Injury and liability category | New federal cases | Change from 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Tort actions | 80,982 | -38.5% |
| Personal-injury cases | 76,390 | -40.1% |
| Personal-injury and product liability | 54,192 | -47.9% |
| Health-care and pharmaceutical | 17,276 | -54.3% |
| Other personal injury | 22,198 | -5.0% |
| Motor-vehicle personal injury | 6,394 | +9.6% |
More specific categories were comparatively small. Medical-malpractice cases totaled 783, down 23.4%. Personal-property-damage cases totaled 4,592, up 6.0%. Fraud and Truth in Lending cases totaled 2,624, up 5.2%, while assault, libel, and slander cases totaled 718, up 10.5%.
Employment, civil-rights, and statutory disputes
Civil-rights cases totaled 45,781 new federal civil cases in fiscal year 2024, up 10.6%. Employment civil-rights cases totaled 13,526, up 11.3%. Within that group, ADA employment cases totaled 3,018, up 17.6%, and other ADA cases totaled 9,030, up 2.9%.
Labor-law cases totaled 12,869, down 3.1%. Fair Labor Standards Act cases totaled 5,252, down 9.4%, while Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases totaled 4,758, up 0.9%. Family and Medical Leave Act cases totaled 945, up 11.0%.
Intellectual-property-rights cases totaled 14,959, up 8.1%. Copyright cases accounted for 7,250, up 16.2%, and patent cases accounted for 3,356, up 11.3%.
These figures are useful for comparing the volume and direction of federal filings, but they are not a prevalence rate for workplace discrimination, wage violations, disability-access disputes, or intellectual-property conflicts across the entire U.S. The federal court series measures cases commenced in the reporting period.
How federal civil disputes end
The U.S. Courts’ Table C-4 recorded 396,486 terminated civil cases in the 12 months ending September 30, 2024. The action recorded at termination varied substantially. No court action was recorded for 76,961 terminated cases. Court action before trial accounted for 294,724 cases, and 22,986 cases reached the pretrial stage or later without reaching trial.
Only 1,815 terminated federal civil cases reached trial, including 1,244 jury trials. The percentage of terminated cases reaching trial was 0.5%. A trial figure is not the same as a win rate: the supplied court statistics report procedural outcomes, not the percentage of plaintiffs or defendants who prevailed.
The distribution can be summarized as follows:
| Recorded outcome or stage | Terminated cases, 12 months ending September 30, 2024 |
|---|---|
| All civil cases terminated | 396,486 |
| No court action recorded | 76,961 |
| Court action before trial | 294,724 |
| Pretrial stage or later, without trial | 22,986 |
| Cases reaching trial | 1,815 |
| Jury trials included in trial cases | 1,244 |
| Share reaching trial | 0.5% |
The categories describe the recorded action in terminated federal civil cases. They should not be interpreted as proof that every case ending before trial was settled; the table itself does not supply a single settlement percentage for all such matters.
How long federal civil cases last
The U.S. Courts’ Table C-5 reports a national median time from filing to disposition of 13.7 months for 346,938 terminated federal civil cases in the 12 months ending September 30, 2024. A median means half of the cases in the reported group were disposed of in less time and half in more time; it is not a deadline or prediction for a particular dispute.
Timing varied by recorded method of disposition. The median was 8.3 months for 69,436 terminated cases with no court action. It was 16.0 months for 254,080 cases resolved before pretrial and 31.6 months for 1,561 cases resolved during trial.
| Disposition group | Cases measured | Median filing-to-disposition time |
|---|---|---|
| All reported terminated cases | 346,938 | 13.7 months |
| No court action | 69,436 | 8.3 months |
| Resolved before pretrial | 254,080 | 16.0 months |
| Resolved during trial | 1,561 | 31.6 months |
The case groups used for timing are not identical to every count in the termination table. The national medians therefore provide context about duration by disposition group, not a guaranteed timeline for all 396,486 terminated cases.
Appeals and EEOC employment litigation
Federal disputes can continue after a district-court decision. The 12 regional U.S. courts of appeals received 39,788 filings in fiscal year 2024, down 0.5% from 2023. Pro se litigants filed 19,101 appeals, representing 48% of new filings. Civil appeals totaled 21,270, down 2.2%.
Private civil appeals totaled 10,517, up 0.9%. Administrative-agency appeals totaled 4,992, up 7.6%, while bankruptcy appeals totaled 457, down 30.4%.
| Regional appellate category | Fiscal-year 2024 filings | Change from 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| All regional court-of-appeals filings | 39,788 | -0.5% |
| Civil appeals | 21,270 | -2.2% |
| Private civil appeals | 10,517 | +0.9% |
| Administrative-agency appeals | 4,992 | +7.6% |
| Bankruptcy appeals | 457 | -30.4% |
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Office of General Counsel reported 111 merits lawsuits in fiscal year 2024, including 110 employment-discrimination lawsuits. The EEOC resolved 132 merits cases and obtained more than $40 million in monetary relief. Among the 111 merits-suit filings, 66 contained Title VII claims and 48 contained ADA claims. Those claims can overlap within the same lawsuit, so the counts should not be added as if they represented 114 separate suits.
The EEOC also filed 13 subpoena-enforcement actions and 18 EEO-1 reporting-obligation actions in fiscal year 2024. The EEOC figures describe the agency’s own federal litigation program, while the district-court and appellate figures describe broader federal court activity. All fiscal-year figures in this article end September 30, 2024; none is a 2026 measurement.
Sources: U.S. Courts, Table C-2A, U.S. Courts, Table C-4, U.S. Courts, Table C-5, U.S. Courts of Appeals—Judicial Business 2024, and EEOC Office of General Counsel Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Report.