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Lex Machina is excited to release its first Contracts Litigation Report.  In 2018, Lex Machina replaced and expanded its Commercial module to include non-commercial cases, including individual, class action, and government lawsuits. Now encompassing over 146,000 U.S. District Court cases, Lex Machina’s Contracts Litigation Module represents the most comprehensive and accurate dataset available for analyzing breach of contract claims litigation in the federal courts.


The report covers the following analytics:

  • Case Filings
  • Case Timing to Key Milestones
  • Top Districts and Judges
  • Most Active Parties
  • Top Law Firms
  • Case Resolutions and Findings
  • Damages Awards

Highlights from the report:

  • Case filings peaked in 2009, likely due to litigation after the 2008-2009 recession. However, since 2016, case filings in Contracts cases have been relatively level for all types of Contracts cases, including Commercial cases, Franchise cases, and Negotiable Instrument cases.
  • The top jurisdiction for Contracts cases filed from 2016 to 2018 was the Central District of California which has nearly 8% of filings. District courts in New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Florida comprise the other four of the top five jurisdictions for Contracts litigation during this period.
  • The LeClairRyan law firm leads the field in Contracts cases filed between 2016 and 2018 on behalf of plaintiffs. Whereas, Greenberg Traurig represented defendants in the most cases during that period.
  • The most active counsel for Negotiable Instrument cases is US Attorneys’ Offices. 
  • And much more

This report presents data from Lex Machina’s Legal Analytics platform. Using machine learning and technology-assisted attorney review, raw data is extracted from PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), which contains documents from federal district court. The raw data is then cleaned, tagged, structured, and loaded into Lex Machina’s proprietary platform. This report is prepared by the Lex Machina Product Team using charts and graphs from the platform. Commentary is provided by Lex Machina’s legal experts.